Photo Story 3: Science Video

In many science units (in grade levels 3-12) there is usually various types of activities you do with the students. Many times at the end of the unit there is little done to tie it all together, and most often with no presentation. Doesn't matter what your activities is, you can use the following directions to help you create a great video for your students or for the whole class to show how much they have done and learned.

Photo Story 3 is a program for Windows users that allows you to create a slideshow video with digital photos. You can keep it very basic for users who don't feel comfortable with special effects, or you can make it as dazzling as you want with transition effects, titles, captions, music, and narration. Videos can then be created into "movies" for you to copy for the class or to give the students.

To download Photo Story 3, click here.

You can alter the following directions as needed to fit your unit:

1. Take pictures of drawings, student experiments, and worksheets. You can take the pictures or have the students work in partners and take pictures of each other throughout the whole process!

2. Have all the pictures downloaded onto disks. If your school has a computer for each student, then have them each have their own disk or have them downloaded onto the computers already to save confusion at the computers. Double check to make sure students have all the pictures before setting them in front of the computer.

3. Make up a check list direction sheet to have students go through the process of creating the video with very little room for questions. It's hard to respond to 20+ children at once! You'll want to go through the direction sheet once or twice yourself to make sure everything is on there.

4. Have the students open up Photo Story 3. They will select "begin a new story."

a. From there they will click on "import pictures." After all the pictures have been uploaded, you can click and drag photos to put them in the desired order. You can then crop or rotate photos simply by click on the icons below the picture.

b. Click on "Next" after all the pictures are uploaded. Here you can put "effects" on the pictures such as making a color photo black and white or "colored pencil". You can also add a title to the pictures as well in the text box. You can play around with the icons above the text to move the text to the desired location and change the text font and color.

c. Click on "Next" again after all the titles and effects are done. Now you can add narration to the video. All the students need is a speaker.

d. Clicking on "Next" a third time will give students the opportunity to add music if they want. When they are done they can preview their video and save it as a movie.

e. Burn the video to a disc and share!