A UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP
The students of Stuyvesant High School were offered an invaluable opportunity to partner with the
Museum of American Finance (MoAF) thanks to the generous support of Placer Partners / The Putney Financial Group and GWG Life.
Students working on this project learned crucial lessons and indispensable tools built on the principles of the Common Core State Standards. The skill sets acquired will help prepare them for college, careers, and life.
"Thanks to this collaboration, my students and I participated in a model educational experience.”
Elka Gould, Video Production Instructor at Stuyvesant High School
“It was one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever done, and all these skills that I’ve learned within half a year
have really carried over into other classes and other things I’ve been doing in my life.”
Angela Lin, Stuyvesant High School
LEARNING THE TOOLS
One of the issues in high schools today is that many high school students interact with media at home, i.e. making their own YouTube videos and Vines. Yet there is a disconnect between the technology that students use and what high schools teach in the classroom.
The video production class at Stuyvesant High School was designed to create a connection between the school and the students through the media that the students are using. An understanding of these media, influences their ways of dealing with them, how to act online, and how to be responsible users.
The class teaches them many creative ways they can respond to the media that surrounds them in their everyday lives and with this knowledge, empowers them. It gives them power over technology.
“Film, at this point in time, is such an important part of the growing up experience. A class like this gives students the tools and influences us
to be responsible adults when we go home and use this media. It teaches us what this media really means in our lives.”
Emlyn Knox, Stuyvesant High School
CONNECTING & COMMUNICATING
Through the student's filmmaking, teachers are able to see the student’s unique world so that the teacher, the school, and the adult world can communicate better with the students.
“A teacher that speaks the same language as us - the language of film - can give us boundaries and guidelines. We trust them to know more than we do about this language. We learn about the ethical guidelines of how images can impact us and how the language of film can influence us. It teaches us about cause and effect and how to be mindful.”
Emlyn Knox, Stuyvesant High School
TEAMWORK & COLLABORATION
The video production class shows the students how to work in a group / crew. In most high school classes, the work is split up and each student does his or her own share of the project. In the process of making a film together, every single step requires each member of the crew to work together - collaboration is everything.
"When you make a film, each person has input and a task - if one person slacks off, the whole thing falls apart, therefore it holds each student accountable. It’s not an authority figure
telling you what to do - we are held accountable by our peers, people our own age. Having that responsibility is really wonderful and rewarding because when it works, you can actually see the
effects of your actions."
Emlyn Knox, Stuyvesant High School
It teaches students the value of teamwork which prepares them for the real world. Successful businesses focus on the dynamic of teams, and learning about that dynamic is essential.
These are important values: how to work with different types of personalities, identifying each person's strength's and weaknesses, learning how to share, and how to create a safe and open space so everyone feels comfortable sharing his or her ideas. Such knowledge enables them to understand how to balance the demands of the group and one's own, how to articulate and communicate suggestions and solutions, and how to work together for a common goal.
“We didn’t just really have to rely on academics, we also had to find and pull out our talents, whether it’s video photography, normal photography or editing videos. It was really different since we can’t just pull out a textbook and be like ‘Oh, the formula for a great video is this.
”No, we had to each bring a different idea to the plate and see which ones we can actually use in order to fulfill what was needed.”
Imih Celainne Go, Stuyvesant High School
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Professional guest speakers and collaborators shared their knowledge of making films with the students. In learning about their specific methodologies, systems of work and practice, the
students gained in-depth knowledge about how professionals made their films, created their treatments, how they dealt with clients, and their struggles in the process of creation.
“This was the best kind of class because you can be yourself, be loose, have fun but learn a lot at the same time.”
Mohammad Ullah, Stuyvesant High School
HANDS-ON LEARNING
“I found it engaging because I was working for a client and my efforts were going towards a real goal helping an institution.”
Emlyn Knox, Stuyvesant High School
The physical act of visiting and working at MoAF changed the way the students saw the Museum. Their physical experience of working there changed the way the students felt about the Museum. It was no longer an institution or an intellectual idea. It wasn't heady anymore - it was experiential. It was a specific work place with artifacts you can touch and feel.
At first, many of the students of Stuyvesant weren't interested in museums because they found them archaic and authoritarian. When they became personally involved with the Museum, their relationship to it completely changed. They realized the importance of MoAF, its history and its continuing significant relevance. They became active participants and supporters, engaged in exploring, learning and helping the Museum.
“The biggest takeaway from this project for me was the importance of the physical artifacts in the museum and how strong they make the experience. When I go into a museum and I see the artifacts and I touch them, the experience is connected to those artifacts and then becomes my own. I remember them and they create a story that I’m connected to, rather than going online and just reading about it. And I find that was really really important to me, and will be something that I will remember for the rest of my life.”
Emlyn Knox, Stuyvesant High School
"We try to make the experience at MoAF exciting and dynamic, something more hands-on, and something you can touch.”
David Cowen, President and CEO of MoAF
THE SKILLS
Research: students learned what is involved in writing about a given subject, identifying the context of the research, knowing its requirements, types of sources of information and documentation, enhanced by hands-on experience through actual and direct observation of MoAF's administrators and its operations.
Q&A: students learned how to conduct professional interviews, asking the right questions, getting what they need from their subjects, and honing their social skills while interviewing, which increased their confidence.
Goals: students learned how to plan and organize the needs of the project to successfully achieve their project's purpose and objectives.
Problem Solving: students learned to anticipate problems in either the content or the technical aspects of the project, and established contingency plans or solutions to those problems, sharpening forward-thinking skills.
Perspective: students learned how to assess their subject from varying points of view, i.e. how the Museum views itself as a vital institution, how those who work there perceive their roles, and what the audience viewing the student films will learn about MoAF from these films.
Inter-Disciplinary Skills: the skill sets that the students learned while working on the MoAF project helped them to enhance their projects in other departments and strengthened their creative and intellectual abilities.