Kearny Digital Media & Design

Overview: Tecolote Canyon is home to endangered chaparral and coastal sage scrub ecosystems of plants and animals. It is also rich in Kumeyaay history, as it was used for food and shelter by the Kumeyaay people hundreds of years ago. The balance of the ecosystem is threatened and the Friends of Tecolote Canyon organization seeks to support programs for the education, preservation, and restoration of Tecolote Canyon. Content and community knowledge will be developed through English, Media, and Biology classes. Understanding will be demonstrated through application in the production of several deliverables. Students will create a Trading Card Game, an Ecology Infographic, a Greeting Card, and a Video. They will be part of a Monarch Fellowship Hub; growing, distributing, and educating our community about the importance of native gardens. These products will help students deepen the connection they feel to their neighborhood, its natural balance, and their ability to initiate meaningful change. The media products will be created using industry-level software and involve multiple revision cycles with feedback from industry and community professionals. Students will be civically engaged with professionals, as well as with local elementary students to spread awareness and participate in community action. 

Project Initiation: The way this project was introduced to us was by our school taking us on a field trip to Tecolote Canyon. We met our client, The Friends of Tecolote Canyon, and several naturalists who work with them. They took us on a walking tour of the canyon to point out the many features of the native plants and wildlife. We also learned about the history of the canyon from Dr. Stan Rodriguez, an educator and member of the Kumeyaay Nation. We learned about the issues that invasive species are causing within this endangered ecosystem, and all about the activism that turned Tecolote Canyon into a protected space.

Project Exploration and Development: While learning about the many aspects of Tecolote Canyon, we produced a trading card game to teach 5th graders at Chesterton Elementary School all about the native species, problematic invasive species, heroes who protect the canyon, and threats that we want to work to stop. We then made Junior Ranger pages for them to teach them about the canyon while playing fun games. Next in our biology and media classes we created infographics to display myths vs. facts about Tecolote Canyon. In English class, we use the hero’s journey as a story formula to write children’s storybooks to teach lessons about the canyon in an interactive way. Finally, we recreated art from the Timken Museum featuring native plants from Tecolote Canyon to show our own perspective on how we see ourselves and environment as something worthy of display.

Project Revision and Exhibition: We had many opportunities for revision and reflection through feedback from our teachers and community partners. It was especially valuable to get to share our work with the 5th graders, because they gave us unfiltered feedback about our products. It really helped us to think about our audience and how we could create work to share relevant information at the right level. We also assembled screenshots from all of our deliverables to create our defense of learning presentation for the end of the year. This gave us a great opportunity to actually see everything that we produced throughout the project, and to look at how we were able to reflect and refine throughout the production process.

Teachers and Subjects: Derek Young, Sarah Murray, Peri Kost, Jena Workman, Cristine Trohaine Troha

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