Using Video Production in Teaching Natural History

Abstract

IN an undergraduate course in Field Natural History, my students produce original video documentaries on local natural history subjects. I am using video production to entice lower level students into independent field investigation, to reinforce their scientific curiosity, and to build their confidence in the value of their own observations. Students videotape subjects and do the library research necessary to produce an intelligent script. During editing, students select and rearrange video segments, modify the original sound track, and add titles, narration and background music. The course ends with a film festival open to the college community. While video production is time-intensive for students and instructor, it is creative and rewarding. This approach is adaptable for small college, high school, and middle school courses in behavior, ecology, environmental science, psychology and natural history. I want my students to develop three traits important to a scientific naturalist: skill at seeing patterns in nature and framing interesting questions about them; knowledge of the names, classification, and identifying characteristics of local organisms; and an understanding of a modern theoretical framework in ecology, evolution and behavior with which to organize this knowledge. I use lectures, films and readings to provide the theoretical framework; the weekly labs are the main opportunity to foster the first two traits.