Primaped
Animation as a creative pedagogical tool
Why to use animation in traditional classes?
The animation caravans of the past years have been a resounding success, with animation workshops in the form of workshops in several locations and summer camps. With the growing involvement of teachers, we have developed a shared vision of how to go beyond the learning and enjoyment of animation and make school curricula different, colourful and inspiring for children and teenagers through animation.
After a long deliberation and discussions with teachers, we chose history and physics for our first pilot animated lessons. In 2022, we started to put together our animation lessons with a professional team of animators, art teachers and Waldorf teachers. We started to think together and experiment with the pedagogical possibilities offered by this art form.
History Lessons
In the animated history lesson, we work on three major Hungarian historical events with senior students, starting from a live history lesson. This will be followed by the creation of a storyboard with the students, the creation of backgrounds and characters, and then the making of films on stop motion tables based on the historical theme. Experientially reliving historical events and combining them with creative work helps to embed them in long-term memory and to deepen the learning content intensively and thoroughly.
Miklós Márton Somorjai, history teacher and historian, together with Tamás Patrovits, animation filmmaker, prepared the professional material for the programme, which enables the classes and groups of children to start their creative work and knowledge acquisition together, based on authentic historical sources and with professional guidance. The animated lessons are delivered by members of the professional Primanima team, Nóra Somorjai-Pálvölgyi Waldorf teacher and coordinator of our children's programmes, Ádám Miklós animation instructor and Tamás Patrovits animation filmmaker and art teacher.
Physics Lessons
The animated physics lessons are approached through optics. Young people will first hear a lecture on the history of photography, filmmaking and animated films, accompanied by a video presentation with examples to support the stories. Here again, theoretical knowledge will be reinforced by practical, experiential experimental teaching through experience, as students will be able to try out 2 and 12 frame animation, and then the creation of an animated film using stop motion techniques on a trick table. This way, children can see for themselves how optical devices work and how the eye itself works as an optical device. At this point, learning combined with creativity invites children to experiment and solve problems in a hands-on way on technical and physical issues. In this way, animation physics lessons can go beyond the subject of physics to include issues of human studies, technology, media, film and art history in relation to optics. The aim is precisely to enable us to explore the highly complex world of optics in a holistic and courageous way.
We will provide editing and post-production support for the films, which can then be screened in school or promoted on social networking sites and websites. We hope that the students' participation will not only help them to learn and experience historical events and the laws of physics, but will also provide a positive example of media literacy, media savvy and the opportunities offered by computer technology.
