Rivers

Litter Monster II Project

The Litter Monster II Project is a two day course delivered to year 4/5 primary school pupils to raise their understanding of the devastating effect of litter on the environment.

Children go out to pick litter along a river bank or beck by their school. In an hour, classes of up to 30 children have managed to pick over 1000 pieces of litter! They come back to school, analyse their findings and spend the day with Ro from Wood Matters learning about litter and in particular single-use plastics.

On day two the children use recycled materials to produce their own litter monsters. This involves them cutting and sticking and hammering their creations together. In teams of five or six they then work to produce a large scale animation about litter. These films incorporate their litter monsters. Animation is an effective tool for the children to reflect what they have learned. It’s also an opportunity for them to consolidate their learning and have important discussions about how they feel about litter. Animation is also fun! We produce the films on a tablet using a free animation app and encourage the children to go home and make their own animations with their litter monsters.

River Detectives Are Go!

This project ran over half a term at Shap Primary School. Year 4/5 children worked on a range of different video production techniques to show their audience what makes a healthy river in a rural environment. They worked on a large scale animation over the course of a day, they did voiceover, scripting, filming. We went on field trips to look at examples of re-meandered rivers and to farms with wildlife corridors and covered slurry and muck stores. We also went and looked at examples of farms which didn’t have guttering or buffer strips. At the end of the project, we invited parents to a world premiere event at the school; we even had a red carpet and popcorn!

The Litter Monster At Tullie House

The Litter Monster formed the centre-piece of the Eden Rivers Trust’s summer 2018 exhibition about wonderful water at Carlisle’s Tullie House Museum. The monster was produced by children from three primary schools in the Eden catchment. During the project, children also worked in production teams to produce little film vignettes where they discussed their feelings about litter. These films were then displayed by the five metre high litter monster on a television screen which it held. The films demonstrate the emotional effect that the project had on the children’s understanding of litter and plastic on the environment.

Litter Monster Installation

This mini documentary shows the final installation at Tullie House. Ro from Wood Matters describes the ideas behind the project and the effects that it has had on the children involved.

The Water Cycle – Educational Project

This film is one of thirteen films produced with year 3/4 pupils at Shap School about the water cycle. All the films focus on our hero – Walter the Water Droplet. They were written and produced by children in teams of two. The children scripted their films, produced the voiceovers and artwork. They also learned how to produce stop motion animation films using a simple app and a tablet. By the end of the project, 75% of the children had downloaded the app at home and were bringing in examples of other films they had produced in their own time at home. The children also developed a very good understanding of the water cycle and became very confident in their use of scientific language.

I Can I Will

In the summer of 2018, I covered a young people’s project for the Eden Rivers Trust. Young people spent a week engaging in a number of activities for an award from the John Muir’s Trust.