Digital Photography For Elementary Science

1. Digital Photography For Elementary Science

2. Foreword: Two Issues • We have all heard that a picture says a thousand words; however if students are not taught the language of photography I believe they will not understand those words! • More and more I see digital photography used for documenting everything about the world around us, yet most know very little about the science behind the technology they are using I hope that integrating camera use into elementary schools will help give people the language to talk about photography and help make it a viable tool for documenting and recording the science in the world around us, maybe even learn how the camera works in the end!

3. Introduction: • I believe that science does not exist independently from every other subject! It is integrated into every facet of our world. • By teaching science integrated from other subject areas we can find new opportunities to teach science and utilize new technologies like photography to document our research.

4. Table of Contents: • The science of Digital Photography CCD • The Science of Digital Photography: Aperture Controlling Light • The Science of Digital Photography: Aperture Controlling Depth of Field • The Science of Digital Photography: Shutter Speed & amount of light hitting the sensor • The Science of Digital Photography: International Standard Organization (ISO) • The Science of Digital Photography: Recap • How to incorporate Photography in the classroom • Digital Photography in the Elementary Classroom • 1000+ Ideas for Digital Photography in the Elementary Classroom • Using Photography for Science and the B.C. I.R.P • Photography, Science and Kindergarten • Photography, Science and Grade One • Photography, Science and Grade Two • Photography, Science and Grade Three • Photography, Science and Grade Four • Photography, Science and Grade Five • Photography, Science and Grade Six • Photography, Science and Grade Seven • General Photography Rubric

5. The Science of Digital Photography (CCD) Digital Photography is made possible thanks to the charge coupled device (CCD) sensor photographed above. Invented by a Canadian Willard Sterling Boyle, who was Born in 1924 in Amherst, NS and obtained his Ph.D. in Physics in 1950 from McGill University, Quebec. In this photo we can see that light is converted to electricity kinda like a solar panel in your calculator but instead the CCD turns the electricity into 0nes and zeros. Think of the CCD sensor as the eye of the camera! Click on the links below to learn more about sensors. Now that we know how a sensor works lets look at 3 ways to control the light that gets to the sensor! Lesson Idea Ask a camera store a recycle depot for old digital cameras and get the ccd sensor from it to show students what it is you talking about. Make a bio poster for Willar Sterling Boyle with a picture of the CCD beside him

6. The Science of Digital Photography: Aperture Controlling Light Aperture controls the diaphragm of the lens the hole that gets bigger and smaller which affects how much light gets in! Photographers also call this FSTOP The smaller the FSTOP the smaller the diaphragm so more light can pass through the lens to the sensor. Try to think of it as more aperture more diaphragm as you can see in the photo on the left at the top F/16 there is more visible black diaphragm than light = big aperture . At f/1.4 at the bottom the number is smaller that F/16 and you can see that less diaphragm shows. Lesson Idea: Take pictures at different apertures and create your own example on the left in Photoshop and make a poster of it with the class

7. The Science of Digital Photography: Aperture Controlling Depth of Field The bigger the number (FSTOP) the bigger the depth of field = MORE IN FOCUS The Smaller the number (FSTOP) the less that is in focus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt6AvJ7WZSI Lesson Ideas: Take pictures of an animal or insect with everything blurry but them so they are the key item they are studying. Teach lesson on decimals with aperture importance of decimals less aperture less light blocking students can take pictures of you while at the board or a still life.

8. The Science of Digital Photography: Shutter Speed and amount of light hitting the sensor Shutter speed Refers to how long you leave the CCD exposed to light before you cover it back up again. You can take pictures up to 1/4000th of a second on most SLR’s but you better have a lot of light because that is way too fast to gather light in most situations. You can leave the shutter open longer but then every tiny shake is visible as blur in your photo so tripods are good for long shutter exposures. Test how low you can go and still get a steady picture! • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uEhgzjbRHg • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA2yQ22YGD8 Lesson Ideas: use during math class to talk about fractions 1/60th for portrait 1/500th for sports etc. Use a quick shutter speed to study motion or other scientific principles or experiments.

9. The Science of Digital Photography: International Standard Organisation (ISO) ISO refers to how sensitive the Sensor (CCD) is to light. High ISO can help you take pictures very fast with little or no blur! However your picture gets grainy or noisy because the pixels on the sensor are being too active and putting out too much interference. Grain or noise can make an image look old so it can be a good thing. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA2yQ22YGD8 Lesson Idea: Take a picture on ISO 100 then ISO 1600 or 3200 and compare on the computer crop out a section and see what noise is and the effects of iso and how we can scientifically create standards and measure noise.

10. The Science of Digital Photography: Recap The light goes through the lens controlled by the aperture opening and is let in for a certain amount of time by the shutter where it hits the sensor at a certain ISO or sensitivity and the light is then turned to electricity which is recorded by the camera as 1s and 0s Get students to illustrate in photos and words what happens when you take a picture.

11. How to incorporate Photography in the classroom • 1st thing 1st we need digital cameras luckily digital cameras have reduced in prices and we can get a great camera for under $100 2008 canon point and shoot camera models are discontinued and have shutter and aperture controls • Ideally everyone will have their own point and shoot camera but we can begin with sharing 3:1 or 2:1. • After we get cameras we need ground rules for the students using digital cameras • to use name stickers on the camera • wrist straps always used or you lose camera time • make reporter press pass cards • you only get to take pictures when you have your reporter card on • As a reporter you must ask permission to take pictures of people

12. Digital Photography in the Elementary Classroom • Now that we know about the basics of digital photography it is time to find ways to incorporate this new technology into the classroom. The more opportunities that arise for digital photography in the classroom; The more opportunities become available to touch on science and its methods. • As teachers I am often reminded not to reinvent the wheel so here are 11 websites and 1000’s of ideas to incorporate photography in the classroom.

13. 1000+ Ideas for Digital Photography in the Elementary Classroom • Science Buddies.org Photography, Digital Photography, & Video Science Fair Project Ideas • Pics4learning has some great links to multimedia related lesson ideas and a collection of great photos • Plano Texas Independent Schools (PISD) have a great website with well over 50 ideas for digital photography in the classroom that they have used. • Some great cross curriculum ideas at Drs. Cavanaugh • Art Activities at Kodak Kids • Keith Lightbody's Technology in Education Web Site • Casio 1001 uses for a digital camera website for educators about 25 lessons instead of 1001 though! • Discovery Education.com Kathy Schrock’s guide for educators • Wacona Elementary School using Digital cameras in the classroom • Marilyn Western's Technology Tips for Classroom Teachers using digital cameras • Adobe’s Photography education in the classroom

14. Using Photography for Science and the B.C. I.R.P

15. Photography Science and Kindergarten For Primary grades I recommend a tough camera like Olympus or Fisher Price Life Science Lesson Idea :Have students go out and take pictures of animals pets and perhaps a photo shoot at a farm or petting zoo to Observe and Communicate and share their photos of animals and their characteristics with their classmates Physical Science Lesson Idea : Have students take macro photos of everyday objects and zoon in on the computer and take a look at properties of everyday objects and materials. Print out the zoomed in microscope like photos and make science posters and communicate the objects to the students by them having to guess what they really are. Earth and Space Science Lesson Idea: Create a photo collage of the surroundings around the school signifying scientific observation. Do this four separate times (once for every season) laminate these as posters to communicate and share ideas about how the surroundings have changed.

16. Photography Science and Grade One Life Science Lesson Idea : Have Students record snapshots of the needs of living things and create a collage to communicate the results with the living thing in the middle and the resources it requires surrounding it. Classify these images into shelter, food, Physical Science Lesson Idea : Use the camera to record motion. Slow it down with a fast shutter or slow it down with a slow shutter. Study the pictures and communicate how the motion is behaving. Earth and Space Science Lesson Idea: Take one landscape picture outside the classroom everyday and print it out and keep it in a class journal and communicate how things have been changing.

17. Photography Science and Grade Two Life Science Lesson Idea : Use the digital camera to record the class pet’s growth or a pet at homes growth and how it changes. Once we collect some of the data students can then interpret the observations and make inferences on what will occur in future photos. Physical Science Lesson Idea : Use the digital camera to record the reflectivity of matter and other properties using the macro feature and cropping in like using a microscope interpret the data out it in a chart and make inferences on what types of matter will go into which place on the chart Earth and Space Science Lesson Idea: Take pictures of flowing water in all different situations and freeze its motion with a fast shutter or slow it down how does water behave? Make a class poster of the best results.

18. Photography Science and Grade Three Life Science Lesson Idea : Take time lapse photography of the class plant or daily pictures of a plant growing and make a video of the images in order to measure the rate of change and report on it. Physical Science Lesson Idea : Take macro photos of materials students encounter everyday have them question each other what shapes do they expect to see zoomed in. Then zoom in on them on the computer and print the photos and have them report on the results Earth and Space Science Lesson Idea: Assign a constellation to every student to photograph during the course of a season and hang them up in their star map locations by measuring the degrees on the star map and the degrees in the feild.

19. Photography Science and Grade Four Life Science Lesson Idea : Assign one group of students to take pictures around their communities of the things they like and then assign the group to take pictures of the things they don’t like have the students make presentations, posters or slide shows and have each others groups interpret their data. Physical Science Lesson Idea : Study of light is directly related to photography introduce photography and the science behind photography in the photography basics slides above. Concepts you can introduce include reflecting and refracting light and its predictable nature in the non quantum physics world. Talk about ROYGBIV and then talk about how cameras can see more than the human eye ie. UV and Infrared. You can also make any digital camera into an infra red camera and test light bulb efficiency and see remote controls light and much much more. Earth and Space Science Lesson Idea: Document different types of clouds and make posters around the classroom with their proper names. Use this information to make predictions about weather conditions.

20. Photography Science and Grade Five Life Science Lesson Idea : Take pictures of the inherited traits of the human body like hitchhikers thumb, connected and unconnected earlobes, etc and post the results on the class bulletin board. Take high speed photos of the body in motion and study how muscles move and the science behind it. Physical Science Lesson Idea : Teach the class about digital cameras a simple machine once you break it down. Or perhaps just how a (CCD) works. Canadian Nobel Prize winner in physics tie in. Earth and Space Science Lesson Idea: Use the digital cameras to create environmentally friendly posters promoting renewable resources/ criticizing non renewable resources and hang them up in the school and the city.

21. Photography Science and Grade Six Life Science Lesson Idea : Pick a small area around the school (or an area slated to the destroyed) and get the students to take pictures of all the life that exists in that one area remember to use macro photography too. When you get back to the classroom create a habitat awareness poster for the area. Physical Science Lesson Idea : Teach Students how a CCD works to change light into electricity and then converts that electricity to 1s and 0s Earth and Space Science Lesson Idea: Take the class spelunking at Horne Lake Caves document the extreme environment inside the cave system.

22. Photography Science and Grade Seven Life Science Lesson Idea : Take weekly photos of an ecosystem around the school have them arranged on a bulletin board with connections made showing the dependence on each thing in the eco system. Take a photo away from the collage and ask students to hypothesize what will happen and take other photos away that relied on that one item you took away. Physical Science Lesson Idea : Take fast burst fire photos of a chemistry experiment in action and make a time-lapse photography video of the chemistry experiment. Also record result and make an experiment poster to hang in class and remind students what they did. (This will also assist those who were sick they can watch the video and study the poster.) Earth and Space Science Lesson Idea: Take the grade sevens to the Nanaimo Abyss and document the field trip with photography a huge crack in the earths crust is perfect photo subject. Take photos of different terrain on the earths crust and make a collage of terrain of Vancouver Island.

23. General Photography Rubric