Sixth graders learn about creativity through art and science at Disney museum
Published in the Nov. 26 – Dec. 9, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Will Zahrt and Marty Cheek
Photo by Will Zahrt
P.A. Walsh student Jose Gastelum looks on a wall of animation art as Disney Museum docent Teresa Williams explains the process of cartoon filmmaking.
Sixth graders from P.A. Walsh STEAM Academy this month visited the Walt Disney Family Museum to learn about the genius of the man who created “Snow White” and “Pinocchio.” They discovered for themselves how to make their own short videos.
The Morgan Hill school and San Francisco-based museum have formed a unique partnership that instructs students in the art and science of telling stories through animation.
Among the 62 students who went on the Nov. 6 field trip was Dante Soria who said he enjoyed learning about early animation by Disney as well as the process of using a multi-plane camera system to make simple stop-motion videos with his fellow students.
“It was, like, awesome,” he said. “My favorite part was when we got to make the little tiny videos with paper we cut up. We created a video where this little guy is walking down the street and he finds a penny and he throws it.”
Suzie Quezada, a sixth grader who also went on the field trip, described how she learned that Disney discovered his drawing skills when he was a young student like her in school and that led to his career as a professional filmmaker. He was very innovative in using science and technology to improve his movies, she said.
Photo by Will Zahrt
Students peer down on a model of Disneyland.
“Science and technology work together because (the Disney team) invented the camera with the different layers and that helps make the cartoons and stuff,” she said. “It’s very interesting to see the evolution of Micky Mouse and Minnie Mouse and all these little characters.”
Learning multi-plane animation and stop-motion techniques was the favorite part of the museum visit for sixth grader Alexander Lai. He appreciated learning through using similar technology that Disney used to tell stories on screen.
“I got to do something,” Lai said.”I got to make stuff and use my mind.”
The short film that he made with his team of students involved a story-line of a “Minion” from the movie “Despicable Me” eating a banana.
“We got a cut-up of a Minion and a cut-up of a banana and we made the Minion eat the banana,” he said. “There’s three layers (of glass) with a camera on top that pictures things in like a 3-D kind of way using depth perception.”
Based in The Presidio, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Walt Disney Family Museum was founded by Disney’s daughter Diana Disney Miller five years ago, said Teresa Williams, the museum educator who led a group of the P.A. Walsh students through the 10 galleries of the 40,000 square foot nonprofit museum.
Students make a short stop-motion video using multi-plane camera technology in the Disney museums learning lab. Photo by Marty Cheek
“Walt Disney always loved drawing when he was a child and he was actually one of the illustrators for his school newspapers when he was in high school,” she said. “He took that passion for drawing with him when he went overseas during World War I. He was 16 — he lied about his age because he wanted to support what the U.S. was doing. He used to draw cartoons on the side of his ambulance because he drove an ambulance during the war.”
The museum contains many fun things for kids to do as they learn about Disney’s life and legacy, she said. In addition to seeing family objects and watching early Disney cartoons, visitors can go to a learning lab in the basement and do hands-on activities to discover how to make their own animation.
Visitors also learn about the struggles Disney went through as he built his animation studio in Burbank.
“One of the things that kids learn about Walt’s story is his drive and determination,” Williams said. “Even if he failed and went bankrupt, which he did several times when he was starting out, he kept with that dream, which I think is important for kids to learn.”
Docent Teresa Williams tells P.A. Walsh students about Walt Disney’s early struggles building his animation studio. Photo by Will Zahrt
As Disney’s company grew, it developed the use of art and technology to enhance its cinema stories using scientific principles, she said.
“The film where art and science really came together for Disney was the movie ‘Bambi,’” Williams said. “They actually brought in little baby fawns that the animators drew so they could draw them realistically, so it’s quite a blend of art and science.”
P.A. Walsh teacher Darren McDonald’s class went on the museum field trip with fellow teacher David Martinez’s class. Disney’s history can serve as a lesson for students not to give up, McDonald said.
“He had small beginnings and, with his ingenuity and his genius, he created what we see today as the innovative animation,” he said. “He wasn’t afraid to fail…. Through ‘Steamboat Willie’ to Mickey Mouse and all the innovations such as sound and color, hopefully the students can learn from his successes and failures. We celebrate our successes and we learn from our failures, which is what Walt Disney did.”
The museum and P.A. Walsh will continue the partnership when museum instructors come to the school in January to teach other students about animation techniques. This is part of the creative process.
“In our classroom, we are constantly working on project-based learning and projects in the classroom,” McDonald said. “The Disney Family Museum has partnered with our STEAM academy to make sure everyone on our campus gets to enjoy the museum.”
Students Leo Ruiz and Arantza Vasquez watch a Disney cartoon in the learning lab for inspiration to create their own short animated video. Sixty-two Walsh sixth graders visited the museum Nov. 6. The Walt Disney Family Museum paid for the entire cost of the trip. Photo by Marty Cheek
P.A Walsh Principal Teresa Sibersheim said the Walt Disney Family Museum approached the school about a partnership last year to show teachers how to make stop-animation films.
“The teachers learned it so well and loved it so much that (the museum) couldn’t wait to get started this year to share their expertise and work with us again this year,” she said. “The Walt Disney Family Museum came out to P.A. Walsh STEAM Academy last month to provide professional development to teachers of our youngest students”
The P.A. Walsh teachers are learning about pixelations and that their students will star in the movies that they make at the museum. Students will fine-tune their knowledge of story characteristics when they do their storytelling in the movies they make, she said.
When students come back from the museum they are as animated as the films they are preparing to make, Sibersheim said.
“There were some students who had been into cartooning before the trip and they are feeling now that their hobby has a future,” she said. “The feeling you sense in the classrooms after they’ve visited the museum is that the students know that they will be ready for the future.”
Will Zahrt is a sixth grader at P.A. Walsh STEAM Academy.
