1. Ideal Lesson<br />The Beauty of Jacobsburg Park: A Photographic Study<br />Goal: Student will shoot and edit a series of nature photos at Jacobsburg Park, to print in a class photo book that will be on sale in the college bookstore.<br />This lesson is for a Digital Darkroom Photography class that is offered to advanced photography students. All students own their own Digital SLR cameras and have taken prerequisite courses. Building on students’ prior knowledge of composition and photographic techniques, students will take their photography skills to the next level, learning photo-editing techniques during this class. The students and instructor will take a field trip to the park document its natural beauty. The outdoor park becomes our classroom, with almost limitless possibilities for creative exploration. In the field, students will be able to interact with each other as well as with the instructor to find inspiration. The instructor can give tips and help students along the way, as needed, but will not take over by getting overly instructional. The instructor works as a resource to the students, should they need it. <br />Returning to the “classroom” the students will learn how to sort and choose the best photos using Adobe Bridge and Photoshop CS5 as the tool. Each student would work at their own Mac and using a program called Apple Remote Desktop, the instructor would be able to remotely project each student’s photos on the interactive Smart Board, as well as to the Mac computer in front of each student. After the favorite photos are chosen by the class, each student would begin to learn the many editing tools used in Adobe Camera Raw as well as Photoshop to touch up their pictures. Depending on the students style or desired photographic outcome, they can spend more time in one program than the other, or it could be an even split. Once the tools are demonstrated and mastered, the students will work with what tools work best for their use.<br />After the photos have been retouched, students will learn how to both publish photos for the web, as well as print photos. We will then as a class, design a photo book in Photoshop and write brief captions under each photo. The book will be published and sold in the college bookstore, giving special credit to the students and the photography class. Each semester the class will print a photographic study that will become known in the bookstore. <br />The students will submit their ten best photos for class review. As a formative assessment, the students and instructor will rate and choose the five best photos to be included in the final book. As a summative assessment, the instructor will grade the five photos based on the rubric before including them in the printed photo book. <br />Each student will then be asked to interview a local charity of their choice, and take a photo to accompany a brief one-page biography on that company. The photo can be of a person involved with the charity, or can be a symbolic photo that makes sense to the charity’s’ focus. The students will then present an informal oral presentation to the class with the image they shot, projected on the Smart Board behind them. After hearing each students “pitch”, the students themselves will agree upon the charity they would like to donate the proceeds from the book sale to. This activity is not graded but counts towards class participation. This lesson is a way to get the students out in the community with local businesses, acting as a reporter, and also a great way to promote civic engagement.<br />