Hello there everyone, and welcome to another blog post. Today, I’m going to talk to y’all about one of our latest projects, “ARGH MATEY!” Through this project we learned about many things, including “The Age of Exploration” and “Cause and Consequence.”
To begin, we started off this project with a BANG… and I mean literally-
On the first day of the project, we watched the movie, “Captain Phillips”, which was about modern day piracy.
Based off a true story, we follow through the perspective of “Captain Phillips” as he deals with a group of Somalian pirates who had seized his shipping vessel.
Unfortunately, in the process, he found himself captured and held for ransom as he heads back, at gun point, to Somalia with the pirates. However, we also begin to feel sympathy for the pirate’s motives and backstory. In the end, the US navy had to get involved, and Captain Phillips was rescued.
However, their victory was through the death of three pirates (who were once estimated to being between the ages of 17-19 years old), and the capture of their own captain who faced trial at the hand of the US government.
I personally found this story upsetting and sad for both sides. Even though the actions of the pirates were inexcusable, it was very hard to not feel at least a bit of sympathy for them. They were simply the products of a collapsed government… fishermen trying to make a living for themselves before falling prey to the temptation of piracy. Captain Phillips on the other hand was attempting to keep himself and his crew safe, while also secretly trying to take a peaceful control of the situation.
Anyways, I would definitely recommend this movie as a reminder that piracy still exists, and it remains as a threat to modern society.
…Just not the stereotypical swashbuckling kind.
WARNING!
If you are sensitive to gore, blood, or violence, I definitely recommend thinking before watching though!
Well… I wrote a lot about this (I love movies SOOOOO MUCH). But, let’s continue on with the rest of the project, shall we?
Next, we learned about the importance of knowing how to use “cause and consequence” in a historical setting. After using a template with cause and consequence to map out the story of Captain Phillips, we got to apply it to a story of our own.
Here comes the exciting part! Using our mapped out causes and consequences, we then used a really cool app called “AR Makr” to tell the story through augmented reality. My story is about the effects of global warming and what humanity does in response to this crisis. I drew both the drawing of the alien, and the main character.
By the way, we were taught how to trace/draw in Keynote, which was how I drew the astronaut helmet. However, the girl was an older drawing that I created for a French project in the last quarter.
This milestone was purely assigned to get experienced with the app, and understand how to use it.
Here’s the video I created for Milestone 1 (my voice was a little scratchy in this recording lol)
Although using AR was pretty cool, it was pretty “fidgety” and difficult at times. Through some trial and error, I’ve learned how to get around the app’s flaws and create something cool! Despite this, I’m always up for a new way to present my art (layering the drawings was really intriguing.)
The competencies listed for this milestone are Cause and Consequence (who or what influenced events to occur and what were the consequences of those events?) and Discussing, Listening, and Speaking (can I demonstrate appropriate speaking skills?)
I personally believe that I did quite well with these competencies and at least accomplished them. For Cause and Consequence, I used the chart to plot out a story based on these terms, and it flowed together well. For the Discussing, Listening, and Speaking competency I attempted to speak loudly and clearly. However, I could have done better in making my voice sound more intriguing and interesting instead of just talking “normally.”
As I mentioned before, we were also learning about the “age of exploration.” One of the most key concepts to understand was that there were THREE main motivators for the Europeans to explore… GOLD, GLORY, AND GOD.
In my opinion, these three motivators were the most influential during the age of exploration. We’ve also learned about many other things such as Christopher Columbus, Prince Henry the Navigator, Astrolabes, the caravel, and a WHOLE LOT MORE! I found learning about all these interesting topics was one of my favourite parts of this entire project. I even took some notes on what was discussed during class (as per usual lol) that really helped me later on.
Of course, all this knowledge came into play throughout the next couple of steps to prepare for our final video.
First off, we made a little chart that included everything we wanted to talk about in the video (even showing off some quick versions of the images/drawings as well.) I tried to focus on the basics of exploration to America while keeping both the immediate and long term consequences in mind. I also decided to take advantage of AR, and make all the images overlap with each other.
Click HERE for my plan!
Next, we wrote our complete script. However, as it turns out, I wrote a little too much for my script, so I needed to shorten it a bit. I’m still pretty proud of how it all turned out!
Click HERE for my script!
Finally, we needed to create our images. At first I really wanted to draw them ALL by hand, but I soon discovered how long that would take. Instead, I decided to trace them all, but I did try to add my own artistic flare to the colouring and line art!
Here’s one of my favourite images:
Of course, after I had everything prepared, I had to start filming!
PSST Also, I hid a couple of pirate Easter eggs in the video! Try to see if you can find them!
ANYWAYS… THE MOMENT HAS ARRIVED!
DRUM ROLL PLEASE!
AND HERE’S MY FINAL VIDEO!
To be honest, I’m very proud of my final video! Even though I don’t really prefer using AR, I think it turned out to be really cool and the program was new and exciting!
As for the curricular competencies, I believe that I’m at least accomplished. I’ve included the causes and consequences of the age of exploration, and I tried my best to speak loudly with a clear, engaging voice (even though I consider myself as not so good in this area.)
After completing our videos, we snacked on a delicious white spot meal in the sunshine!
Global exploration has easily impacted all our lives. Things important to modern culture such as global trade, and eating tropical fruits worldview started during this age. Also, there are many consequences to these actions such as racism and a loss of culture which deeply impacts many lives centuries later. In the end, we’re all involved in this global transition, and everyone bears both the positive and negative impacts.
Thank you so much for reading this blog post, and I’ll talk to y’all later!
My gifs are from the following sources:
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