IN THE CLASSROOM:Projects pack power of video

Dylan Roe had a question for his PowerPoint presentation at Newport Elementary School: Is it possible to survive a tsunami? To find out, he sought a visual aid. The sixth-grader typed the word “tsunami” into a search engine and came upon footage that offered an answer.

The clip, available on www.unitedstreaming.com, showed a pair of surfers in Peru riding atop tidal waves and barely staying afloat. The young daredevils, Dylan said, had sought an area where they knew a tsunami was expected to hit and were lucky to make it back alive.

“They wanted to do it as a joke, but it got insane and they almost drowned,” said Dylan, 11.

When Dylan showed his PowerPoint to the rest of the class, he included a one-minute clip of the surfers to demonstrate an essential point: While it may be possible to survive a tsunami, don’t risk it.

Every week, students at Newport Elementary visit the campus computer lab to do online projects. Dylan and the other sixth-graders in Carol Lang’s class had made PowerPoint presentations before, but now they took them to a new level: For their recent presentations on plate tectonics, the students posted video clips on the class projector.

Each of the clips came from KOCE-TV, Orange County’s public television station, which sponsors technology projects at a number of schools.

Students had four topics to choose from — tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes and mountain formation — and searched United Streaming for clips that suited them.

“They give you a lot [of clips on the website], but the best ones are usually the most frequently used, and they put them first,” said Rachele Wurr, 12.

For their reports on tectonics, Lang’s students were restricted to one minute of footage, which meant that they often had to play editor as well with the Movie Maker program. Each film segment on the website listed its length and the appropriate grade level.

Cole Gallishaw, 11, said he sought clips with narration because they packed the most information into the shortest amount of time.

Dana Siegel, 11, said using video gave a presentation added punch.

“It really helps what we’re talking about,” she said. “It helps to wrap it up.”