Skyping With Imafon Community High School In Nigeria – Session 1

Curriculum Day 1:

• Watch videos to introduce the program. The videos are short, fun, and will give the students an idea of the family they are joining. There’re several great and exciting videos on the baratfoundation.org website that exhibit the Creation Nation theme. http://dev.baratfoundation.org/parade-videos

• Explain what an Animodule is, the video to watch is: http://dev.baratfoundation.org/animodule-videos Both videos are great. My favorite is Animodules at the Newark Airport, as it includes an animation. Both videos explain the Animodule concept and process.

• After the conversations and videos would be a word derivation exercise. As we are “Creation Nation”, we have a student go up to a board and write the word CREATION. Next we ask the students to define what Creation means to them. After exhausting possibilities with Creation we move on to writing NATION on the Board, and asking students to define the word Nation. Lastly we write CREATION NATION on the board and ask the students to define Creation Nation. We have done this word derivation exercise with students as young as fifth grade and as old as senior citizens. It is a very powerful exercise. As our goal is to encourage learners to become creators (of this art piece, and moreover of their own lives), this begins their thinking outside of the box. We are working to help students transform words into concepts, and words and concepts into visual images once we begin working on the sculpture itself.