Concerned Citizen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw6gw240_iQ&feature=youtu.be

As we began brainstorming who and what to film for our project, our thoughts turned to our friend Barett who contributes to the community by participating in chemistry magic shows for elementary school students. Growing up I remember getting excited to miss class to go to assemblies no matter what the subject or focus.  As a result, we thought Barett would be interesting because he is helping kids become more excited about chemistry, a subject that many students dread.  As for a theme and how we put our film together, Star Wars just happened to be what was happening at the science show and we just really wanted to show how this was impacting the kids.  We have a lot of shots with children and we wanted to share the excitement they had. The music becomes more serious as the conversation with Barett becomes more purposeful and reflective. At this point Barett begins talking about how a lot of science jobs are going overseas and that he wants to instill within children a desire to pursue science as a career. Whereas the music before is lighthearted to fit the party, the more serious music occurs as we want the emphasis to be on how important this actually is. In Arlene Goldbard’s article Human Rights and Culture: From Datastan to Storyland she discussed how stories can change culture. Barett, too, feels that the story of science can help change our nation’s culture to a more science oriented people. Frontline: Digital Nation is a documentary that is seeking to make a change in a similar way. It recognizes the use of technology, but also how it is consuming our world. By sharing stories from people and their experiences with technology the documentary hopes to help us become more informed and act on that information.  Barett hopes for the same thing regarding chemistry.