Seven Mini-Docs on Climate & the Environment from the Young Documentarians

Are frog populations diminishing? Is the changing climate interfering with bird migration? Do the big storm and changing temperatures have any impacts of fish? How can we protect bees, nature’s pollinators? What can we do to save the beech trees?

Chelsea Nester (GTSI) and Tara Denherder (TC West Middle School) talk with a parent and student.

Early this spring, a science class led by teacher Tara DenHerder set out to get some answers to these and other questions by forming into groups and doing some serious science journalism. Nature Change is happy to present their short videos!

Over the past semester, seven student teams from Traverse City West Middle School created short documentaries on the regional impacts of climate change. These students chose the subjects, developed the research questions, interviewed experts and worked with advanced video editing software to create the seven mini-documentaries presented here on Nature Change.

Film-Makers Panel – Traverse City State Theater

Throughout this project, the students were guided by award winning science teacher Tara DenHerder with support from Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS), the Traverse Area Community Media Center, Grand Traverse Stewardship Initiative, and Nature Change. These mini-documentaries were formally presented to the public for the first time on June 16th at the Traverse City State Theater. The event included a film-makers’ panel discussion about the making of each video and the important lessons learned.

Please join Nature Change in congratulating these young documentarians on their new video productions. These videos are packed with information and reflect the real hopes and concerns of this 8th Grade science class.

Please watch these videos! We think this is a pretty great project! Let us know what you think about the videos.

To view these videos, just click on the images below.

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