Introduction to Visual Storytelling

Purpose

This course features the likes of celebrity pop surrealist artist Camilla d’Errico, world-renowned photographer Michelle Valberg, celebrated Indigenous carver James Michels, top chef Marc Lepine and award-winning movie producer Mary Young Leckie, alongside former prime minister Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, pollster Shachi Kurl, Global National anchor Dawna Friesen and Indigenous leader Dr. Leroy Little Bear. The voices of these experts and so many others provide students with a comprehensive understanding of art and visual storytelling, helping them learn the concepts mandated by provincial and territorial curricula (view complete curriculum connections). Additionally, students will cultivate a diverse range of tangible and intangible skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, decision-making, effective communication, entrepreneurship, empathy and resiliency.

Goal

By the end of the course, students will understand the concepts set out in the curriculum and understand how to apply them in the real world, as citizens and through their careers. Nature Labs aims to help a new generation think more critically and act more creatively, today and every day.

Key Concepts and Terms

Structure

The course is broken down into twelve lessons, or chapters, with curriculum/curricula concepts explained through story and class activities.

Lessons One to Five: The first five chapters – which each include numerous breakout lessons for further skill-building opportunities – establish the knowledge base required to understand course concepts and terms.

Lesson Six: This lesson introduces students to their final project, which uses the principals of design thinking to test student comprehension of the course material.

Lessons Seven to Eleven: These lessons help students apply the knowledge they’ve gained through the first half of the course, with a focus on specific skill development (critical thinking tools, communication and presentation techniques, peer review and resiliency support, career-building ideas) that can help the class overcome obstacles as they pursue their final project.

Lesson Twelve: In addition to completing the final project, this lesson focuses on summarizing the course and leaving students inspired as they continue their academic, career and life journeys. Moreover, students are given the opportunity to submit their final project to Nature Labs and compete to have their project be the focus next year’s Inquiry Media.

Lessons

Lesson Media:

Each lesson begins with a story – and every story is available in video, audio or written formats to help with different learning styles and classroom preferences. Each chapter is a combination of multiple shorter stories that can be watched in full or played/assigned individually based on what feels most relevant and useful to the class. Lesson Media is at the heart of how Nature Labs presents and explains course concepts and terms.

Lesson Activities:

Each lesson provides numerous activities for the class to explore the subject matter and test comprehension levels. Though most activities are optional, we recommend one activity per lesson that will help students develop their thinking as they move toward their final project.

Expert Conversations:

Every Nature Labs story features leading experts from across Canada and around the world. With each lesson, we spotlight the most relevant conversations and give students the opportunity to hear the full expert interviews in Podcast format. Additionally, every conversation featured in every story can be heard in full at any time, allowing students the opportunity to dig deeper on any given subject or perspective.

Curated Library:

The Curated Library is a research tool we provide students to help them better understand lesson material, aid homework assignments or the final project, and dig deeper on ideas that have surfaced during the course. With news articles, Podcasts, documentaries, research journals, infographics and so much more, we’ve analyzed over 3500 resources to give students a leg-up in finding the best information available in Canada.

Inquiry Media:

At the end of lessons 1-5, students will delve into a thought-provoking, inquiry-driven topic that uses a cross-curricular lens to connect course concepts to real-world issues and back to the communities where students live. These stories illustrate the importance of what they’re learning, the complexity of society and the incredible opportunity students have to create the world they want to live in.

Final Project:

The final project is an opportunity for students to apply what they’ve learned through the lens of the course, with the teacher able to decide whether it’s a written assignment or a verbal presentation. This project will help students understand the real-world career and citizenship applications of the course material. At the end of the course, students are given the opportunity to submit their final project to Nature Labs and compete to have their project be the focus next year’s Inquiry Media.

Class Organization:

Each lesson can involve individual tasks as well as group assignments, allowing teachers to choose where and when and how they want students to work. We have designed each lesson within each course to provide as much flexibility for both the teacher and the student. Indeed, Nature Labs works well with flipped classrooms, stations, independent and group work and through collaboration.

Note: While this unit has used the grade 10 curriculum from across the country, this course can easily be adapted for students from grade 7 to university level!