Adam Bauser’s Blog

Eggs, Trains, and Engineering [Video]

2017-05-21T15:05:00.000-04:00

This story from the May 14th episode of Classroom Close-up is one of my favorites from the current season. While the Egg Drop is definitely a science class classic, this is the first time I've seen it done with simulated magnetic levitation train collisions.

Why iSTEM
Students at Kenneth R. Olsen Middle School in Tabernacle are learning how math and science are used during problem-based learning projects. Using the engineering design process, students work in teams to design and build prototype maglev train cars and put them through a simulated crash test. Working collaboratively to find solutions, students learn skills that will last a lifetime.

Montgomery Parents Say, “Freshman Physics Too Hard.” Trenton Parents Say, “Thank You for the Opportunity.” [Video]

2017-03-24T12:31:00.000-04:00

I just happened to see an article on CentralJersey.com about parents and students who oppose Montgomery's Physic First program that requires freshman to take an introductory physics course. The argument basically boils down to two points:

It's too difficult and stressful
It's not the way it's traditionally done

By traditionally done, I'm referring to the standard science sequence most people go through in high school (Biology to Chemistry to Physics). The reason being that freshmen students haven't yet studied the advanced math needed for physics.

My first thought reading the article was to wonder if Montgomery was using NJCTL's PSI/PMI programs (zero-cost curricula developed by teachers through a non-profit organization) which promotes a new sequence where students take an algebra-based physics program as freshman. It doesn't appear this is the program Montgomery is using, but the reasoning behind it is similar.

We've covered NJCTL and their programs a number of times on Classroom Close-up. Last year, I produced a story about the implementation of their programs in Trenton.

It's interesting that the CentralJersey.com article mentions how Princeton High School doesn't require physics for freshman which seems to imply the fact supports the opposition in Montgomery. I actually talked about the idea of freshman physics with a number of academically-minded Princeton acquaintances after we filmed our story. Some found the idea intriguing, but I witnessed the same skepticism.

“They don't know the math yet.” and “That's not the way I learned it.”

All I can say in response is that there appears to be a lot of evidence and support from professional educators for the idea of putting physics first.

Final thoughts:

I find it intriguing that 300 parents in a high-performing, well-funded district oppose this new science sequence while struggling, urban districts like Trenton and Camden (where students historically lack access to higher level classes like physics) embrace the concept.
I wonder how much semantics plays into opposing the idea of physics first? If they called the freshman physics course something else would people even think twice about it? Back in the 1980's, my high school required students to take a 9th-grade science class called "Energy" which I'm pretty sure was essentially an intro to physics. To the best of my knowledge, no one opposed this class.

Students Interview Joyce Hansen, Author of The Captive [Video]

2017-03-22T10:04:00.000-04:00

The March 19 episode of Classroom Close-up, NJ featured one of those rare occurrences when I get to return to a school I've visited before. This time, I was back at Kresson School in Voorhees Township to show how students are combining language arts, research, interpersonal communication, and technology skills to explore history.

Interviewing the Author
Fifth-graders at Kresson School in Voorhees Township Skype with award winning novelist Joyce Hansen about her book The Captive—a pre-teen novel about a young African prince who is kidnapped and brought to colonial America. The author explains how she researched the novel and answers questions about her characters. The students learn how to research, create website,s and conduct meaningful interviews.

I wish I had been able to include more about the book and Hansen, but I chose to focus on the pedagogy of the lesson and how it combined different areas of instruction to create a unique experience for the students. I have to admit, interviewing students who had just spent weeks learning about interviewing made me a little self-conscious about my technique.

3D Printing Prosthetic Hands [Video]

2017-03-15T12:21:00.000-04:00

Here's a story from the March 12 episode of Classroom Close-up, NJ about students at Southern Regional High School who are building 3D printed prosthetic hands.

Give the World a Helping Hand
At-risk students from Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin collaborate with students in an advanced Anatomy and Physiology class to design and build 3D-printed prosthetic hands for those in need. Using equipment purchased through a HIPP grant, students learn to use CAD software and print the hand components. At the same time they're learning STEM skills, the at-risk students are able to develop communication and life skills.

Recharging...

2016-10-04T11:45:00.000-04:00

Google just popped these old photos up for me. Nine years ago today...

These old RAZR pics are from the first day of the Shelter Run shoot for the Rogers' Rescues documentary. Arguably one of the most memorable shoots I've ever been on. The top one is us leaving and that second one is the restaurant we had dinner at that night. On that long weekend of run'n'gun shooting I had to make sure I started each day with a full set of charged batteries because I didn't have a portable charger, which meant I could only charge batteries with my camera.

Coincidentally, I spent some time yesterday making sure all my batteries were charged. I even ordered a new one to add to my kit (and the portable charger I wish I'd had nine years ago).

Why all the charging? Because tomorrow is the first day of shooting for a new documentary project.

I figured it was about time.

I Like Making People Cry [Video]

2015-05-08T11:22:00.002-04:00

Applause is nice, but you really know your retrospective video hit the mark when people cry.

That's why I was pleased to see people reaching for their hankies when they played this look back at the first ten years of the Moody's Mega Math Challenge during the 2015 competition finals in New York.

This year's M3 Challenge winners.

I've been fortunate to have been involved with the Challenge since I first covered it for an episode of Classroom Close-up, NJ back in 2008. With a decade's worth of footage including DV, HDV, and DVC-PRO HD along with thousands of photos and a few fuzzy YouTube clips from the contest's first couple of years, putting this together was a big job for BMG's editor.

The clip also made heavy use of interviews that we conducted with participants and coaches from all of the previous Challenges through Google Hangout. While obviously not the quality of footage we normally like to capture, it proved itself to be a viable way of getting a lot of geographically dispersed interviews in a short amount of time on a limited budget. The Hangouts were also used to make a series of Flashback videos that were used to promote the tenth anniversary on Facebook.

As we near the finals of yet another Challenge, we recall amazing things participants have done in past years. In this...
Posted by Moody's Mega Math Challenge on Tuesday, April 21, 2015

If you want to find out who came out on top at this year's Challenge, watch the 2015 M3 Challenge recap.

A Journey from the Holocaust to the Classroom [Video]

2015-04-06T20:33:00.001-04:00

Last summer, a group of 30 New Jersey educators visited Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and the Netherlands as part of an educational trip organized by the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education. The Classroom Close-up, NJ crew was able to document part of that trip. Since then, we've been working to produce a half-hour documentary about their experiences as well as Holocaust education at home and abroad.

The Classroom Close-up special, Transformation and Remembrance: A Journey from the Holocaust to the Classroom premieres this Wednesday, April 8 on NJTV. Please watch.

For the 100th time...

2014-09-26T11:28:00.000-04:00

This weekend is the season premiere of Classroom Close-up, NJ.

You can catch the first episode of the 21st season on Sunday at 7:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on NJTV. While I haven't been a part of all those seasons, I recently realized that this week's show does include my own personal mini-milestone. "Exchange Student" happens to be the 100th story I've produced for the show.

A long time ago in a planetarium far, far away....

2014-07-02T12:09:00.001-04:00

"Orion" at the Lenape Valley Planetarium

I just finished editing a Classroom Close-up story for next season about the planetarium at Lenape Valley Regional High School. It's one of six operating planetariums found in public schools around New Jersey. It's definitely a valuable asset for the students studying astronomy and for the wider community that uses the facility for elementary school field trips and other activities.

When I first got the assignment for this story, I realized I hadn't been in a planetarium in more than twenty years. In fact, the last time I was in a planetarium was 1990 and I was also working on a story. I was a college freshman on my first assignment for the Insider, a feature news magazine published at my alma mater, Bowling Green State University (For the record, I was a bit of a dabbler in college, so this was the only article I ever wrote for the Insider).

I mentioned my bit of personal history to the director of the Lenape Valley Planetarium, John Scala, and he asked me if I'd interviewed Dale Smith, director of the BGSU Planetarium, for the article. I couldn't remember at the time, but lo and behold, it was Dr. Smith. Apparently, planetarium directors is a pretty tight community.

Here's the Insider article, complete with a vintage ad for Howard's Club H.

The Hedgepeth-Williams Story [Video]

2014-05-21T14:35:00.001-04:00

Here's the penultimate episode of Classroom Close-up's 20th season.

It includes a story about how NJ's public schools were desegregated in 1944 by the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision in the case of Hedgepeth-Williams v. Board of Education, Trenton, NJ. Ten years later, the Hedgepeth-Williams case would be cited as precedent in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, KS which banned school segregation nationwide.

Carbon Footprints [Video]

2014-05-01T15:28:00.000-04:00

Here's the latest episode of Classroom Close-up, NJ that aired on April 27 (not May 11 like I said it would in my earlier post). The second segment is the story on Carbon Footprints that we filmed at Samsel Upper Elementary School.

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Conference Season Approaches [VIDEO]

2014-04-22T14:13:00.001-04:00

It's getting close to that time of year when I start working on a lot of conference-related projects. Here's the promo BMG recently finished for this year's SPBT Annual Conference.

Kids Can Change The World [VIDEO]

2014-04-07T12:45:00.000-04:00

Here's a fun video that we spontaneously decided to make while filming a story called "Carbon Footprints" for an upcoming episode of Classroom Close-up, NJ. The students at Samsel Upper Elementary School had this skit all prepared to show us, but the format worked better for stage than TV. So to make it work for the show, we just filmed them all holding their signs and cut it together in post. Only a bit of this appears in the actual story, but here's the entire video for your enjoyment.

You can learn more about the student's efforts to lower their carbon footprint when the episode airs May 11 on NJTV.

Check out the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! While you're here, subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

Schools Surviving Sandy [Video]

2013-01-18T10:49:00.001-05:00

Here's the special episode of Classroom Close-up, NJ about the impact of Hurricane Sandy on New Jersey's schools.

Like Wendell says in the show, it's not our typical episode. While the format of Classroom Close-up is "newsy", were not known for covering events as they happen. Our stories are usually planned months in advance and the time from filming to post is usually the same. So everyone put in some extra effort to make this one happen, especially our executive producer, who somehow managed to pull all these stories together in just a few days and get us out in the field to cover them.

Check out the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! While you're here, subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

Watershed Ambassadors [Video]

2012-12-31T08:19:00.000-05:00

This is a story I produced for Classroom Close-up, NJ that aired earlier this month. It's about students at Kresson Elementary School in Voorhees who are studying Watersheds. I love doing these outdoor stories, but this one was particularly memorable because it was the first time I'd ever really encountered Americorps volunteers. The young women helping with the environmental lessons at Kresson were from New Jersey's Watershed Ambassador program.

Americorps recently received a lot of press when they were called on to help at shelters, remove debris, and provide assistance following Super Storm Sandy. I ran into a few of them in Hopatcong while working on a segment for an upcoming episode about the storm's impact on the state's schools.

Check out the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! While you're here, subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

Recent History [Video]

2012-11-30T21:39:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, I was at Valley Middle School in Oakland. Although we were there working on a story about the Joining Old and Young poetry club, I couldn't help but notice the poster board exhibits displayed around the room. They were projects from National History Day, a story that I covered earlier this year that appears in this Sunday's episode of Classroom Close-up, NJ.

This weekend's episode is actually a repeat, it first aired about a month ago, just before Sandy hit us. It's the last repeat before a string of new episodes ending with a show we've been putting together about the effects of Sandy on schools around the state.

Check out the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! While you're here, subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

Every Kid Needs a Hobby Day [Video]

2012-10-24T10:08:00.000-04:00

One of the goals of Classroom Close-up, NJ is to inspire teachers (and students, parents, etc.) by showing them the great things happening at schools around the state. It must be working because Nate's become a big fan of the show. Not every story, but he definitely likes the ones where you get to see kids doing fun stuff at school.

In this week's episode, his hands down favorite story was Hobby Day, which he would like to see implemented at his own school as soon as possible.

Check out the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! While you're here, subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

I Think The U.S. Should Adopt Middle School Debating Rules [Video]

2012-10-18T13:16:00.002-04:00

Shame!

That definitely wasn't a debate we saw this week. It was an argument. I think it would be a lot more interesting (and fun) if the national debates adopted the Middle School Public Debate Program format and the judge declared an actual winner at the end on live TV. Imagine the outrage from the losing debater's team! The best part would be the judge explaining to each debater why they lost points.

If you want to see some real debating, check out this week's episode of Classroom Close-up, NJ featuring Stone Bridge Middle School and the Garden State Debate League.

And be sure to stick around for the dancing dinosaurs at the end the show.

Check out the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! While you're here, subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

One-on-One with Classroom Close-up Stars

2012-10-03T20:45:00.000-04:00

If you're looking for something to watch after tonight's debate, there's a nice bit of synergy going on over at NJTV. Recently, some of the teachers we've interviewed for Classroom Close-up have been appearing on the show One-on-One with Steve Adubato. During the interview they show clips from the Classroom Close-up stories they appeared in.

Tonight's episode features Carl Botti, the Jersey City music teacher from the KYBD Band story. You can catch it at 11:30 p.m. on NJTV or online.

You can read more about this interview and upcoming segments here.

On Behalf of the Show, I'd Like to Thank All of Our Faithful Viewers Who Get Up Early on Sunday [Video]

2012-10-02T09:13:00.000-04:00

A glimpse at my Season Pass List

Since I happened to be up early on Sunday, I figured I'd do something I almost never do. I'd watch television "live", meaning while it's actually airing instead of on my beloved Tivo.

I settled into the couch, peanut-shaped remote in hand. The season premiere of Classroom Close-up, NJ was going to be on at 6:30 a.m.

Or so I thought.

They changed our Sunday morning air time to 7:30 a.m. and I missed the memo. By the time 7:30 rolled around, the kids were awake, breakfasts were being made, and I wasn't on the couch anymore.

I watched it on Tivo later that day.

Watch 21st Century Learners on PBS. See more from Classroom CloseUp.

Check out the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! While you're here, subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

Math Season [Video]

2012-07-31T13:09:00.000-04:00

Since it's the last day of July, my personal goal of two blog posts per month (down from last year's four) is about to take hit. Seeing as it's also my final post as a thirty-something, you might expect I'd have some clever musings on getting older. Nope. I just wanted to share a video overview from the 2012 Moody's Mega Math Challenge. This year the problem revolved around high-speed rail.

So, as you might have guessed from the title of this post, it's once again math season at BMG. I recently returned from covering the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Annual Meeting in Minneapolis and am furiously working on creating highlights from three day's of footage and interviews. This year's clips will include a talk about 3D modeling of the real-world for movie effects and another about image processing ("Enhance!").

Double Same-Days in NOLA [Video]

2012-06-26T09:30:00.001-04:00

These guys don't look like biotech trainers

Another season of Classroom Close-up, NJ has come to an end. In case you missed it, you can watch the season finale online. It's a recap of the season and includes bits from more than a dozen shows.

So besides editing stories for next season, what do I do during the summer when we're not filming stories for the show? Well, along with shuffling the kids to camps and practices, summer is a busy season for business conferences. This month, I trekked down to New Orleans to do some production for the Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers at their 2012 Annual Conference.

Here is one of the two same-day-edits that I put together while I was there (you can see the other one on SPBT's YouTube channel). For those unfamiliar with the concept, it's pretty simple, film and edit a video in the same day. It's like one of those 24-hour movie making contests, but you get paid for doing it.

For these videos, we filmed from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day and then delivered the video by 10 p.m. that night so they could show it at 8 a.m. they next morning. I'll also be putting together a more comprehensive five-minute overview video for SPBT (but at a less exhausting pace).

June, already? [Video]

2012-06-03T09:57:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I was at Stone Bridge Middle School in Allentown covering a Garden State Debate League tournament for an episode of Classroom Close-up, NJ that will air next season. Animal testing, baseball, and standardized testing were just a few of the topics the students debated. It was the league's final tournament of the year and it was also my last assignment until the fall when a new school year starts. I'll be plenty busy though, I've got seven stories in the can that I need to edit in between all the other things I've got going on this summer.

Today is also the season finale of Classroom Close-up, NJ. If you missed it this morning, you can still catch it at 12:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on NJTV. I don't have a link to share yet, but here's a link to show 19 which I didn't get a chance to post before it aired. It includes the second part of our story about JA Finance Park that I wrote about earlier this year.

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Test Screening Causes Tearful Nine-Year-Old Girl to Demand Recut [Video]

2012-05-20T00:34:00.000-04:00

I don't know about Emily, but this is
what reduces me to tears.

Another school year is almost over which means Classroom Close-up, NJ is in a stretch of reruns leading up to the final episode of the season in early June. Fortunately, this gives me a chance to post about some of the episodes I haven't had time to write about in what's been an insanely busy spring for the Bauser family. Airing this weekend is an episode that includes a story I produced called "Music Memories" about how educators at Warren Point School in Fair Lawn are using music to help students hone their writing skills.

I typically do most of my editing in the confines of my attic/office away from watchful eyes, but occasionally my kids wander up to see what I'm doing. Nate usually wants to know when I'm going to make a "good" movie, which means something with lasers or a battle scene. Emily actually wants to see the story, especially when it features kids near her own age. In this particular case, she came along when I was working on the bit at about 3:30. I was running long on the story, so I was considering not including a resolution to this particular memoir, but her tearful insistence convinced me otherwise.

If you want to see the entire episode, it will be rebroadcast Sunday, May 20 at 6:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m, and 7:30 p.m. on NJTV or you can watch it online.

Warning, in addition to tear-jerking musical memoirs, it also features zombies.

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Remembering a Rescuer

2012-05-10T10:25:00.000-04:00

On the Shelter Run in 2007 with Dee (far right) and the rest of the Rogers crew.

Last night I heard the sad news that Dee Seiffert had passed away. Dee was one of the amazing canine rescuers I had the privilege of travelling on a shelter run with while filming the Rogers Rescues documentary in 2007. I didn't know her well, but I remember her friendliness, kindness, compassion and commitment to rescuing animals. I feel lucky to have known her even a little, and the trip I shared with her and her colleagues is still one of my best filmmaking memories. Although she was a little camera shy and preferred not to be interviewed, she appears throughout the film doing what she loved. Rest in peace, Dee.