Nitric Acid Acts on Copper

A Tale Told by Ira Remsen

Melissa Hall

Purdue University

Project 1 – Digital Storytelling

Final Submission – April 2nd , 2017

EDCI 566

Title Nitric Acid Acts Upon Copper – A Tale Told by Ira Remsen

Project 1 Link via YouTube: https://youtu.be/iNEgCiNda-8

Topic Ira Remsen, a chemist, relives his first ‘laboratory’ encounter as a child as he witnesses the reaction between nitric acid and one of his beloved pennies.

Intended AudienceThe audience will consist of high school chemistry students, grades ranging from 10 th – 12th grade (ages 15-18). The digital story may be used in all chemistry classes offered, both lower level learners and honors chemistry classes. Integrated Chemistry & Physics is a course that learns basics of chemistry in the second semester and usually consists of students who are at risk or have traditionally underperformed in previous science class. Chemistry I consists of the ‘average’ population of students at the high school. Chemistry I has a large range of ability levels in the population but generally consist of those who are capable of learning the more in depth chemistry concepts but may not be interested in chemistry post-graduation. Honors Chemistry is for those students who typically perform well in math and science and like to push themselves. This course offers the same content as Chemistry I, just at a faster pace, therefore getting through more topics within the school year. The learners have limited experience with chemistry instruction previous to the class, especially for the intended unit. The school is in a rural setting.

Story Component The story is told by a famous chemist, Ira Remsen. He reminisces about his first 'real' encounter of a chemical reaction that peaked his curiosity for the sciences. He relives a time when he tried the reaction of copper and nitric acid at his home, and the many mishaps that he experienced through this process. He focuses on the experience of the situation and how important observation and physically conducting the lab is important, along with curiosity and questioning. The digital story will reenact Ira’s at-home lab to gain the attention, and hopefully a few laughs, of the learners in the audience.

Instructional ComponentThe digital story of Ira Remsen will be used as an introduction to the Chemical Reactions unit in a high school chemistry course. It will be used in the chemistry courses offered that were mentioned in more detail in the Intended Audience section. The purpose of telling this story is to provide a transition in between units and act as a springboard for the chemical reactions unit. My intention is to grab the learners’ attention and get them excited about what is to come in this unit. Seeing such an intense chemical reaction, and hearing about Ira’s personal story is an entertaining presentation to do just that. (Or at least I hope!)

Scope/Sequence/Supplementary MaterialThe digital story will serve as an introduction to the unit. I have read this story to my students in the past at two different points of the unit. I have read it on the first day (my intention for this project) to get learners anticipating what will happen next. I have also read it on the second day of instruction, after some background on types of reactions, so we can classify the reaction being presented in Ira’s story. Either option, I believe, would have a great impact on the targeted learners. After the digital story, the students learn the 5 types of reactions, the ability to predict products of reactions, and how to write and balance chemical reactions. They will perform 2-3 lab experiments in this unit using their recently presented chemical reaction content.

Multimedia PrinciplesModality Principle The story of Ira Remsen will be narrated without text on the screen as a reenactment takes place on screen for the learners to watch. The learners will be able to listen to the narration as they experience the video, without worrying about additional text on screen.

Redundancy PrincipleOnce again, narration and on-screen video will be the only forms of the way the content is presented. No on-screen text will be displayed, as to not distract the learner from what they are watching.

Split-Attention PrincipleThe narration will be the only audio played during the digital story video. No audio from the on-screen acting will be heard to avoid cognitive overload. The attention to the story itself is the important part of the content.

Storyboard SequenceTotal Estimated Time: ~ 3.00 min timed by reading script only. Expected to increase as scenes are shot.

Peer Review Digital Storytelling Project Peer Review

Name of Reviewer: Melissa Hall

Title of Project Reviewed: Looking at Fossils - Homer’s Adventure

Author of Reviewed Project: Kerianne Niswonger

Storyboard and Project Context FeedbackCategory Indicators Recommendations

Topic & Audience

☒ Topic is clearly described in a few sentences

☒ Audience is clearly identified (grade level, characteristics, & groupings included)

Descriptive, clear and concise – great job!

Context

☒ Context for digital storytelling project is included

☒ Appropriate level of detail for context is provided to allow for understanding

NGSS were explained and content was correlated with national standards.

Multimedia Principles

☒ How specific multimedia principles will be used in project are listed (these may not be evident within storyboard)

I think you could add some principles to this section other than the Modality Principle. Your title organization throughout the story were great ways draw attention to the important pieces of what the image/video showed. This would be an example of the Signaling Principle. I also think you have an argument for the Split – Attention principle for similar arguments as the Modality.

Multimedia Element FeedbackCategory Indicators Recommendations

Presentation

☒ Finished multimedia element is clearly presented, flowed well, and was interesting to view/use

☒ Pictures/sound/text had a purpose, clarity, and related well with the content

Font selection works perfect with topic!

Introduction/Objective of Video

☐ The introduction provides motivating content that hooks the viewer and keeps the audience's attention.☒ The video expressed clearly the goal or objective of the project.

I did my best to have the perspective of a 4th grader when reviewing. There was no ‘hook’ for me to be engaged in the video. The narration did a great job of setting

up what is to come in the story but possibly add something to draw the students in more.

Meaningful Audio ☐ Music/audio matches the story line well. ☒ Images coordinated with the music/audio.

The song selection in the background was a little distracting for me. At 0:52 it gets louder and the narration is harder to understand. At 4:00 the audio for that particular slide is very loud. The audio clarity for the narration seems a little fuzzy – but not a main concern I would have. Narration & images were perfectly synced.

Quality of Images/Video

☒ Images create a distinct atmosphere or tone that matches different parts of the story

☒ The video is edited with only high quality shots remaining

Really enjoyed the videos of the scientists cleaning & working on the fossils – are there more of these that you could add?Images are small on the screen and a lot of blank space is available. If the pictures do not become too distorted, I would recommend making them larger.

Overall CommentsWhat did you like about this project?

Interesting topic..what 4th grader doesn’t like dinosaurs?? Images were great to see and cued with the narration beautifully. Font choice matched perfectly with the storyline and made the video fun. Organization and transitions flowed well.

What weaknesses did you find within this project? With such a young audience, I think more transitions need to be made during

the video to hold the learners attention. A lot of time was spent on a single image while Homer spoke in the background.

The music choice was distracting and volume was not consistent for audio. What suggestions do you have for improvements of this project?

Add in more transitions if possible, especially more video if can find them! Even just allowing more pictures to scroll through. During the museum narration maybe try to find video of students walking through the museum?

I would change the music in the background to something more upbeat but lower the volume on the audio so it does not drown out the narration.

A possible hook may be to find a way to show Homer talking to the students. There are several apps on both Android and iPhone that involve talking dinosaurs. I downloaded one called Talky Don but a Talking Dino app said that you could build your own dinosaur in the description. I think the students

would like an animation and the app that I downloaded provided a really cool voice change! Just a thought!

Digital Storytelling Project Peer ReviewName of Reviewer: Sarah Burkhardt

Title of Project Reviewed: Nitric Acid Acts Upon Copper: A Tale Told by Ira Remsen

Author of Reviewed Project: Melissa Hall

Storyboard and Project Context FeedbackCategory Indicators Recommendations

Topic & Audience☒ Topic is clearly described in a few sentences☒ Audience is clearly identified (grade level,

characteristics, & groupings included)

Context

☒ Context for digital storytelling project is included

☒ Appropriate level of detail for context is provided to allow for understanding

I think this is a great introduction to spark curiosity!

Multimedia Principles

☒ How specific multimedia principles will be used in project are listed (these may not be evident within storyboard)

Not having text on the screen was helpful. I could focus on the narration and the images without being distracted by text.

Multimedia Element FeedbackCategory Indicators Recommendations

Presentation

☒ Finished multimedia element is clearly presented, flowed well, and was interesting to view/use

☒ Pictures/sound/text had a purpose, clarity, and related well with the content

Using black and white video with the black and white photos was a great choice!

Introduction/Objective of Video

☒ The introduction provides motivating content that hooks the viewer and keeps the audience's attention.☐ The video expressed clearly the goal or objective of the project.

I liked how you connected with the viewers by saying Ira was mischievous and curious like them. You may want to add an objective or a hook before you even start telling the story though. Something on the lines of “What happens when an experiment goes awry? Where can your curiosity take you? Or start with the image of the bubbling beaker saying this is where my curiosity lead. Would you like to hear the story how I got there? This would hook the learner immediately but also indicate what the video is going to be about.

Meaningful Audio ☒ Music/audio matches the story line well. ☒ Images coordinated with the music/audio.

The sound effects help add drama to the video to catch attention.

Quality of Images/Video

☒ Images create a distinct atmosphere or tone that matches different parts of the story

☒ The video is edited with only high quality shots remaining

Overall CommentsWhat did you like about this project?I like your call to action at the end of your presentation. It helps bring it all back to the purpose of the video.There was cohesiveness between the images and video as it stayed in black and white.You asked about pauses/dead air. I thought they were all appropriate in length and were not distracting. Your video flowed well and kept the content moving. There was never a time where I wondered why there was nothing going on. The sense of humor will hook your high school students!What weaknesses did you find within this project?

I was unsure of the purpose of the video from the start. Your conclusion indicated about where curiosity can lead. I think this may need to be included at the beginning.

What suggestions do you have for improvements of this project?

I would just add an introduction piece to give a purpose to the video (see my notes in objective section). Also, you need to add credits at the end. I am guessing most of the content came from a book about Ira Remsen.

Project ReflectionWhat works best about your project?When I create things to use in my classroom, I truly think about what is going to keep the attention of a teenager, especially if they are a teenager that despises science. I think what works best about my project is that it takes a story that I would already read to them, but it adds a sense of comedy to it by me reenacting it for them. I am no stranger to making a fool of myself in class already, so why not just have video documentation of it!

I thought the flow of the video was great for the audience, and narration generally stopped when the audience was supposed to focus on the video itself. I tried to make emphasis of the chemical reaction and how ‘cool’ chemical reactions could be by keeping the black and white theme continuous throughout the video, except when a chemical reaction was being shown.

What do you wish you had time, energy, and money to make this project even better?There were many things I had planned on doing when I created my initial storyboard for this video but, unfortunately, my district’s spring break vacation and the timeline of the project did not mesh well with my intentions. My first thoughts were to have a male student be the actor

for Ira Remsen during the reenactment scenes. Since Ira was a man, it would only make sense to have a male actor playing the part. Since all of my students were gone for two weeks, I had to settle for me being the actor and dressing somewhat like a boy; the reason for the ball cap and converse shoes! I would have also liked Ira’s story to be narrated in a man’s voice so the audience had a better idea of when the storytelling from Ira began and ended, but once again, resources were limited. I even looked into voice changing apps but that got immensely complicated.

Since I was alone for creating the project, my “camera man” was me holding a selfie stick and sometimes this lead to a slightly shaky scene. With more resources, I could have had better quality filming that looked more professional and I would have been able to use both of my hands when acting.

What value did the storyboard and the peer evaluation have for your project?Creating the storyboard, as I learned in my previous course EDCI 569, is the greatest tool when planning! I found the filming/creating/editing processes to be much easier because I had such a solid timeline and flow in the storyboard prior to having all of the media prepared. I was able to use it as a checklist when filming each scene so I didn’t miss any and have to film again another day. When narrating the video, I knew exactly which lines went with each scene and how long I had for that particular scene. Of course, there were many minute changes that occurred throughout the process, but for the most part, the project creation went smoothly and I owe it to the planning stage of the storyboard.

I found the peer evaluation to be a valuable experience for this project, if for nothing else, reassurance that I was heading the right direction. There were some parts where in my eyes seemed to be long pauses, but my reviewer did not find any points in time where the silence was distracting or disengaging so that was nice to hear. Most of the time, you are your own worst critic so it is great to get another set of eyes to look at a project before submission.

What aspects of the peer feedback were you able/unable to address and why?Besides her reassurance of using the black and white theme and slo-motion scenes, the only feedback that was provided to modify the project was the mention of adding a better hook to the introduction of the video. I did think about how I might go about this and even thought up a way in which I could add in scientists and their discoveries that were made from pure curiosity, but ultimately, I decided to leave it as is. I wanted to leave a bit of suspense in the video and not allow my students to make guesses about what was to come. Like I mentioned in my instructional context, I have the option to show this either Day 1 or Day 2 of the chemical reactions unit. If shown Day 1, they will be told that we are transitioning to the chemical reactions unit and then the video will be played. Much more background on chemical reactions will be given if the video is watched during Day 2, and after the video presentation we could write out the chemical reaction that took place in Ira’s home. Either way, I want the video to be an open concept that forces them to watch to see what happens, who Ira is, and how this all correlates to a chemical reaction.

What have you learned about the instructional planning process based on the completion of this project?Like I stated earlier, the planning process is the key to developing a great project. What I have learned now that I have completed many planning documents in this course is that the thorough and the more intentional you can be in your planning, the better the outcome of the project. I cannot say it enough…details, details, details! I, still, could have added more detail to my storyboard and had each scene drawn out to show where the scene would be filmed and where the props should be located and possibly even the camera angles I could have filmed in. You can always draw back if there is too much in your plan, but it is really hard to make changes in the opposite direction and add more content once the project has been started.

Which of the 2 multimedia principles were addressed and how were they addressed through the development of this project?The modality and redundancy principle were both addressed during this project for the same reasons. The reenactment of Ira’s very first lab will be shown and narrated as each scene takes place. There is no additional on-screen text that will distract the learner’s attention away from the scenes taking place. Also, due to the audio of the narration, both the visual and auditory aspect of learning is triggered. Without the on-screen text, there is little chance that there will be a cognitive overload in the visual channel.

I also think the signaling principle was used in my project. The use of black and white was a continuous theme until it the video got to the point of the chemical reaction – the main feature! The use of the different visual effects signaled the learner to the key point of the presentation, without using any words or animations.

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