2013 Scarlett Middle School Visit

On Thursday July 11th 2013 we had 70 middle school kids and about 15 School of Education graduate students descend on the Digital Media Commons for a tour and activities.

We met the week before with Charles Dershimer and planned how it would all go, deciding to split the group into manageable chunks.   Here's a schematic of the final schedule:

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Things went more or less according to plan, and everyone had a wonderful experience.  I'll be posting more photos when I get some from the Scarlett folks, but this was Kathryn Young's lovely email the next day:

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A couple of photos from Elly Schmitt (more to come!)

Steve Eberle and kids in front of the green screen on the monitor on
the left is the final composited image of them on Mt. Everest.

In the CCA waiting to go to the next activity.

In theVideo Game Archive

The Green Screen in DL1

The chromakey setup for the News

The kids on the News set

Adding their own voices to Toy Story

More Toy Story

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And this all started with a seemingly simple request that arrived in Rob Pettigrew's email.
(feel free to skip along through the emails; I just wanted to keep the record)

-------------- <edited versions of emails> -------------------

On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 9:59 AM, Ralph Dershimer <dersh@umich.edu> wrote:

The School of Education MAC program has our teaching interns working with Ann Arbor Middle school students at Scarlett Middle school in a summer school clinical program this June and July. 

We would like to bring the middle school students, and the teaching interns, (about 100 people total) to visit North Campus on day in July for an enrichment field trip as part of the collaboration between Scarlett and UM. 

Best-

Charles

..........................................................

R. Charles Dershimer, PhD

Clinical Assistant Professor

U-M Director, W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowships

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From: Ralph Dershimer <dersh@umich.edu>

Date: Thu, May 30, 2013 at 6:56 AM

Rob, Glenda, Kathi and Dan-

I really appreciate this- this short event will have long term impacts on the lives of the students who visit. The date we are now focusing on is July 11th with the visit occurring between 12:30 and 2:00. 

I'm also connecting you Kathryn Young and Ari Bartolacci from the SOE who are both far more organized that I am and will likely be organizing the logistics of the tour. 

Best to everyone-

Charles

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On May 30, 2013, at 6:58 AM, Ralph Dershimer <dersh@umich.edu> wrote:

Hey Tom- I hope all is well-

Please see the message trail below - interested in getting involved in any of this on a personal level...?

Charles

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On Jun 12, 2013, at 3:06 PM, Ralph Dershimer <dersh@umich.edu> wrote:

Glenda and Tom- 

Thanks for making time to meet today- I think the ideas we generated are fantastic! The Scarlett students will really enjoy and learn from the experiences you all agreed to provide. 

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On Jul 6, 2013, at 10:52 AM, Tom Bray <tbray@umich.edu> wrote:

Hi Charles-

So I'm writing a script for the video studio groups to use when they are here.  I would like to include things about Scarlett that they would find fun and interesting, like "Principal Smith to serve 2 weeks of detention for chewing gum in the hallway", etc.  If there are particular figures at the school whose mention would be fun, if you can think of some situation to put them in, etc. that would be great.  I was also thinking of shooting some exterior video of the school so we could put one of them 'on the scene' via chromakey.

Any ideas would be great, and thanks.

-t

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Here's the rundown on the activities:

Tom Bray, Jacques Mersereau, Jeff Alder, Dave Greenspan and Ryan Wilcox in the Video Studio:

Students will either be on screen or operating cameras, audio, switching and recording equipment to make a TV newscast.

Steve Eberle in ChromaScreen/DL-1:   

Learn how the magic of greenscreen/bluescreen chromakey technology is used in TV and films. Stand on the surface of Mars!  Climb Mt. Everest!   Deliver a news report on a virtual news set!  It can all be done in front of the Digital Media Commons’ chroma screen.

Rishi Daftuar in the EM Studios:

Learn how the movie studios record the dialog for movies by recording your own voices as the characters in scenes from Toy Story.  Watch the scene as you record your voice along with the original characters.  Play it back and hear you performing the scene!

Dave Carter and the Video Game Archive:

See the evolution of video games first hand as you get to see real games, from early stand-alone consoles to the first “TV” games to some of today’s hardware.  Get a chance to play some of these games while you are there.

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And here's the script I wrote for the Newscast:

<roll news music>

<fade UP Music & Graphic>

<fade Music under as we dissolve to 2 shot of anchors and hear from off-camera...>

ANNC:  Around the world, across the nation and up your street, it's the Scarlett Middle School News…..

<Music out; mics UP>

<cut to CU of A1>

A1: Good morning and welcome to the Scarlett News.  Our top story is a report that Mr. Sobolewski got into trouble this morning during a staff meeting - for passing notes.  We are still waiting for confirmation on this, but it seems he was trying to get Ms. Racine's Pillsbury Bake-off-winning recipe for ice cream sandwiches.  It is not clear whether he actually got the recipe during the meeting or if Ms. Racine gave it to him after class.

<cut to CU of A2>

A2: And now we take you live to Scarlett Middle School, where our field reporter is covering a breaking story.

<roll tape of Scarlett School for chromakey>

<cut to MS of student keyed over footage of Scarlett exterior>

A3:  Thanks, <NAME> . The story here concerns Mr. Vazquez's bullhorn, which has gone missing.

<CU A2>

A2: Do we know what happened to it?

<MS A3>

A3: Nothing has been ruled out yet, but at the moment it appears that he simply misplaced it.

<CU A2>

A2: We understand that the Roadrunner has also gone missing.  Are there any suspicions that he might have run off with the bullhorn?

<MS A3>

A3: They just want the roadrunner for questioning.

<CU A1>

A1: Has anyone actually ever heard him talk without the bullhorn?

<MS A3>

A3: (pause) No.

<CU A2>

A2: Thanks <NAME>. Thats all the time we have for the news for now.  Until next time, have a good time.

<roll news music>

<DISS to news graphic as music comes under and up>

<FADE to BLK>

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-t

DMC Video Studio, University of Michigan

Digital Media Commons Video Studio - a short tour


These few photos and video clip only give a VERY rough idea of what our studi is like.  I'll be adding to it but wanted to put something up here since I was asking you all about your studios.  I hope it gives you some idea of our space.  These are stills taken from various uses of the space that kind of show its scale.  The floor plan has actual measurements.

Finally there is this 3D modeled walk-through of the studio done several years ago by a student.  Not too exciting, but it gives you a better sense of the room, the walls, etc.

PlanetBlue Visit to the A2 MRF

Check out the City of Ann Arbor's 5 minute video on how single stream recycling works:

Single Stream Recycling

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On Friday June 28, a bus full of Planet Blue Ambassadors took a trip to the Materials Recovery Facility  (MRF) out near Platt & Ellsworth.

Looks like the sign had an accident.

 This is where all the sorting of recyclable materials happens, both for the City and for the UM.

The MRF building entrance.

After an orientation, we went in 2 groups for an inside tour after donning safety gear.

One of the things they told us was that they really don't want you to recycle small plastic lids or grocery bags.  The lids tend to get sorted as paper, and the bags tend to gum up the works of the conveyors - as sort of illustrated below.

Bag caught in the machinery.

Here is where the trucks dump the mixed recycles.

These doors stay open all year, whatever the weather!

Here is where the sorted recycles get bailed in preparation for shipping to the factories that use them.

The bailing machine is on the right.

The education center had some useful ways of getting the message across to school kids.

The most important thing we learned was to NOT recycle lids or grocery bags.  Who knew?

-t