Home a free movie about the planet by a French photographer: Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a French photographer who has become very famous for his splendid aerial photography (1) throughout the world. We saw his exhibit in Chicago, and each time he cares to display his work in public places so that everybody has access to his vision for free. The power of his photos comes from a detailed description for each shot in which he explains the world context of the photo.

He has now gone one step further by filming a spectacular movie about our entire planet. As you can imagine, being a photographer, the cinematography (2) of his movie is beautiful from beginning to end. Once again and because he wants as many people as possible to understand the issues at stake, he is releasing his documentary on June 5th (for the UN world environment day 2009) without any copyright. This means you can watch it for free, distribute it to whomever you want, play it wherever you want and even make remixes of it! so please download it from home-2009.com.

Iceberg Greenland Denmark Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Photo © Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Watch the introduction by yann at ted.com.It’s really funny because he has a very strong French accent (you can put the subtitles on).

Watch the entire movie on youtube and share it with facebook.

A quote to remember: “You know the problem: we don’t want to believe what we know”.

(1) Aerial photography: Photography taken from an airplane

(2) Cinematography: The art or technique of movie photography, including both the shooting and development of the film.

 

Facebook Justice Fighters

Facebook can reach far and deep into our lives and this article illustrates just the point. In Internet Justice, Asylum explores six instances where people who were wronged manage to bring justice using Facebook.

  1. A graffiti artist gets caught with his tag
  2. A security camera mugshot matches
  3. How to retrieve a stolen laptop
  4. Fix your truck on facebook
  5. Hateful crime is thwarted
  6. Police Departments on Facebook

handcuff 150x150 Facebook Justice Fighters

Read the rest of the article here.

 

Nature morte

Based on Still-life with Peaches painting (2004) by Russian artist Gribennikov, the 8th grade students created their own nature morte with Photoshop.The most still lives are from Annelies, Yasmine, Puneet and Tyler

nature morte gribennikov 150x150 Nature morteNature Morte by Gribennikov (2004) - the original

nature morte annelies 150x150 Nature mortenature morte yasmine 150x150 Nature mortenature morte puneet 150x150 Nature mortenature morte tyler 150x150 Nature morte

Natures Mortes by Annelies, Yasmine, Puneet and Tyler (2009)

[lesson plan = 2 classes]

Nature morte or still-life: Type of work in which an arrangement of diverse inanimate objects, including items of food (especially fruit and game), plants and artefacts is depicted. This arrangement is often apparently random and is usually within a domestic setting. The form is normally associated with oil painting, but other media have been used, including mosaics, watercolour, collage and photography. Despite the existence of still-life subjects in pre-Classical, Classical and Renaissance art, the form was recognized as a distinct genre only in the 17th century, when it reached the height of its popularity in western Europe, especially the Netherlands (where many of the conventions of Renaissance and Baroque still-life painting originated), France, Spain and Italy. (from the art encyclopedia at answers.com)

 

Classic song: Eye of the tiger by PS22 Chorus

This is a cover of Eye of the tiger by PS22 Chorus. If you have not come across their exploits yet, PS22 Chorus is a NY city elementary school choir which is rocking youtube.

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Kudos to another Mr. B.

 

How is bubble gum made?

Pavan discovered this great video depicting the production of bubble gum. Did you know bubble gum is made out of plastics? Do you know why it’s pink? Follow this video to find out the answers to these questions.

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Depict: to represent

 

Overfishing the oceans - the problem with herrings

Sree sent a very informative video about the changes taking place in the industry of fishing. New fishing techniques deplete entire areas of the fish regardless of sustainability. The trawler fishing boat are so destructive that their path can be traced by satellite! Nothing bigger than 3 cm make it through their nets.

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Deplete: to empty out

Sustainable: capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment

 

Internet timeline with TimeRime

Harshita did a great job setting up her timeline on the web 2.0 website TimeRime.com. She has mapped 14 items to highlight the birth and development of the Internet.

[lesson plan = 2 periods]

 

How Celebrity Photos are Photoshopped in Magazines

After a good discussion with another student regarding the role of media in education and the distortion of  reality through stereotypes (1), Johanna comes at the right moment with this fantastic video. You will see in this video how a newscaster for Diet.com who spends her life training towards the perfect body still requires some Photoshop touch-up to be magazine-worthy. Never forget that when you are looking at a magazine “99.99% of all celebrity photos are photoshopped.” An artificial reality is not what you want to based your real-life standards upon. Instead of focusing too much on an ephemeral (2) physical appearance, it is much more important to build a warm, positive, open-minded character, attractive to many more people than a clear skin!

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This is a second spot Johanna added to the list which will remind you that fast-food is not happy food.

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(1) Stereotype: A general mental image of a group or class of people that is usually oversimplified. An advertiser may feature a stereotypical user of his product in order to encourage the audience to identify with the user. For example, housewives are often used in advertisements for cleaning products.

(2) Ephemeral: Lasting for a markedly brief time. Living or lasting only for a day, as certain plants or insects do.

 

Tom Lehrer The Elements Song Video

This excellent song from Tom Lehrer (he has a few other funny ones such as his version of the tango…) was sent to us by Divina who is obviously making some great discoveries on the Internet and earning some extra credit. Well done Divina! The song itself is a stop-motion animation made with a lego character moving to the tunes do the Elements song by Tom Lehrer. You can easily do stop-motion animation at home with a digital camera and Windows Movie Maker.

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National Geographic Whale Shark Video

This video discovered by Amrit follows the fascinating whale shark underwater. It also earns Amrit the first extra-credit for the Life -Explorers section!

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Working outside of class: the extra-credit section

Many of you spend time outside of class “working” with their computers. Don’t forget that if the work is worth displaying, I will be giving away exatr-credit for these.

Here is an exhibit of the most recent extra-curricular works from my students:

extra credit lunapic pauline 1 150x150 Working outside of class: the extra credit sectionextra credit lunapic pauline 2 150x150 Working outside of class: the extra credit sectionextra credit lunapic pauline 3 150x150 Working outside of class: the extra credit section

3 images from Pauline with the online photo-editing tool lunapic

extra credit photoshop paola 150x150 Working outside of class: the extra credit sectionextra credit photoshop megan 150x150 Working outside of class: the extra credit sectionextra credit photoshop ankhit 150x150 Working outside of class: the extra credit section

From Paola, Megan and Ankhit with Photoshop

extra credit sketchup robbert 150x150 Working outside of class: the extra credit section

iPods by Robbert with Google SketchUp 7

extra credit photoshop dimitri 1 150x150 Working outside of class: the extra credit sectionextra credit photoshop dimitri 2 150x150 Working outside of class: the extra credit section

Dimitri pursues his talent with Photoshop

 

The benefits of staying on the Internet all night long

For this lesson plan, 10th grade students are turning argumentative and creative to convince their parents of the benefits of staying on the Internet all night long. Designing a convincing outline with Word 2007 SmartArt was a snap and Dewi did it the best as you can see below:

isc all night internet dewi 150x150 The benefits of staying on the Internet all night long

[lesson plan = 1 period]

 

3D Flower in SketchUp

For this introductory lesson to the free 3D modeling program Google SketchUp, the students had to design a 3D flower involving pistil, stem, leaves and of course petals. The best results are from Andreina, Nicolai and Sameer.

isc 3d flower angelica 150x150 3D Flower in SketchUpisc 3d flower nicolai 150x150 3D Flower in SketchUpisc 3d flower sameer 150x150 3D Flower in SketchUp

[lesson plan = 1 period]

 

Earth day comics

I received some excellent submission from our earth day assignment using the online comic creation tool Pixton but none as glorious and humorous as Camille’s:

[lesson plan = 1 class period]

 

how much sugar are you eating?

sugar in coca cola how much sugar are you eating?

16 1/2 cubes for a medium size bottle?
25 calories per cube
412.5 calories in sugar
It takes 2 hours of walking to burn 400 calories.

How many bottles do you drink a day? How many hours do you walk a day?
Go check the amount of sugar in all your favorite foods at www.sugarstacks.com.

Tip: It takes about 7 minutes of walking to burn 1 sugar cube worth of calories.

 

little red riding hood animation

An animation by Tomas Nilsson.

 

The Essential Nap: Are You an Owl?

sleepy owl 150x150 The Essential Nap: Are You an Owl?

According a research exposed in the Guardian, napping is an absolutely essential process for all mammals, even NASA pilots see immense benefits in taking naps. Just avoid napping at school!

Quotes from the Guardian article:
“A nap of 60 minutes improves alertness for up to 10 hours. Research on pilots shows that a 26-minute “Nasa” nap in flight (while the plane is manned by a copilot) enhanced performance by 34% and overall alertness by 54%. One Harvard study published last year showed that a 45-minute nap improves learning and memory. Napping reduces stress and lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke, diabetes, and excessive weight gain.”

If you read this article you will also be able to determine your napping profile and whether you are an ark or an owl.
Link to the rest of the article

 

For the Love of Water

For the love of water (2008) is an essential documentary to understand how scare our water resources are and discuss whether access to water is truly an inalienable human right.

inalienable: incapable surrendered or transferred

 

Earth Tectonics

a rather short-sighted human perspective tends to forget where the earth boundaries came from and where they are going. which country are you from on this ever changing map?

tectonics: the branch of geology studying the folding and faulting of the earth’s crust

 

The iguana collage

My 6th graders torn through the picture of this innocent iguana using one of the following online photo editing websites: www.lunapic.com, www.fotoflexer.com, and www.picnik.com. I highly recommend them if you want to have as much fun as they did doing these:

6a 150x150 The iguana collage6b 150x150 The iguana collage

[project length = 1 period]

 
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