The best education for kids is the kind that engages them with real world challenges and encourages them to have the audacity to do something about it. Vids for Kids is a semester long course that teaches kids how to use documentary filmmaking as a tool for investigating and learning about the stories in their neighbourhoods, their communities, their city, and beyond.

Film topics can range from exploring how their immigrant parents overcame adversity to discovering local community leaders... anything to help kids cultivate an eye for what is awesome Calgary! At the end of the course, kids will be sharing their film (and hence their learning) with friends, family and the broader Calgary community through a locally organized film festival.

To support this project, we would like to use the money from Awesome Foundation to build eight to ten video kits that can be used and reused each semester by different schools. Each kit would contain video, sound, and light equipment to be assigned to video teams within the class.

The first pilot run of Vids for Kids will start this September with a grade eight class from the Alice Jamieson Girls' Academy (a public junior high). The course will be jointly taught by videographer Chris Hsiung and teacher Kathryn McKenzie. Chris will provide his technical knowledge and experience on telling stories with video (such as storyboarding, shot framing, interviewing techniques). Meanwhile, Kate will integrate formal curriculum by fostering critical thinking and empowering girls to use technology.

After the test run, the Vids for Kids project will be taken to other schools in Calgary where partnerships can be formed with other imaginative teachers who see the potential of using video to cultivate learning.

Follow the progress of this portion of the Worldviews Project here.