Download the Student Handout

 

Introduction:

Have you been outside of your county to see the rest of your state? Most students haven’t. This project combines the art of digital photography, family travel, and technology.  It gives students the opportunity to create some memories and engage is some pretty awesome technology! Students will learn how the five themes of Geography played an important roll to many of Virginia's historical events.

 

Timeline: October 4 - End of our Spring Break

The Process:
You will put together a Photo Story using Pixie 2, Image Blender, Microsoft Photo Editor or any program that will allow you to edit pictures.

·      You will have a traveling companion in the way of a little piece of bread - that's right, you read this correctly. You will be taking with you a club roll, after all, the Shenandoah Valley was known as the "Breadbasket of the Civil War" so it's rather fitting that you take along a little loaf.

·       It is my hope that you and your family will be able to get out and see some of great history Virginia has been a part of. You really don't have to travel far for within a stone's throw of Manassas are plenty of places where history was made (see the link  for places to visit.  Don't worry, you'll have between October and April to collect some great photographs. if you fall short, we will collect pictures using Google Images.

Your Photo Story must include the following:

  • Students will be required to collect pictures from the five regions of Virginia by using Google Images or personal pictures. Students must collect at least 3 pictures from each region. 
  • Each picture must represent a part of Virginia's history.
  • All 5 regions must be represented in the final project.
  • Each picture must have a caption explaining its significance and name which theme of Geography it captures.
  • Personal photos are to include your little loaf. 

Digital Photo-Journal Tips

When you plan your digital Journal you’ll need to keep these three things in mind

  • Photos
  • Basic page design and
  • Journaling  - keep tabs on what region your picture came from! Don’t forget the 5 Regions!

Organize yourself with these in mind and you’ll be on your way to creating an Oscar worthy movie!

Taking photos
Photographs are the main visual focus for your project.  You don’t have to be an expert to take good picture, but it doesn’t hurt to learn a few tips. Here are some keys to obtaining quality pictures.

  • Keep in mind that photos from a digital camera or scanner are bitmapped graphics, made up of square pixels or dots. This means digital photos always have a background. Making a digital photo smaller is seldom a problem; making it bigger enlarges the pixels and can distort or blur the image.

Use the original file each time you edit a picture to avoid distortions.

Finally, always keep a backup of your photos! Copy your digital photos on a flash drive, (memory stick, thumb drive….) to prevent files from being changed.

Virtual Field Trip

Maybe some of you will be fortunate enough to get to all of the regions of Virginia, but just in cast you don’t…. we will be taking a Virtual Field Trip through these regions via the internet. You can collect your pictures by from each of the regions by using the Google Image search.  Most pictures are public domain; however students do need to be reminded of copyright protocol. We will be using the Google Advance Search to find images that are the correct size and free to copy. This is a fun way to integrate geography, and the five themes of geography.  

These next few pages are designed to give you an idea of how you may want to show off your pictures. It's been put together to show you a sample page along with some pictures of Bo traveling throughout Virginia and elsewhere.  I've traveled all over Virginia with Bo, my Baguette. He is quite popular and even has his adventures on his own facebook! His real name is Bilbo Boudin Baggett and I'll be sharing more with him as we go along.

This is Bo, my French Baguette. He is standing in front of the University of Virginia, which was founded by Thomas Jefferson.

Here's Bo on top of the Poplar Forest Sign. Poplar Forest is where Thomas Jefferson stayed when he wanted to get away from it all. It was is own little private retreat.

 

 

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