Discovering existing connections - gaining insights
Waterways of Hope is a project dedicated to showcasing everyday human efforts in preserving environment and introducing younger people and children to all the ways they could appreciate and also nurture nature of their surroundings. This is why we believe that art does not start primarily on the screen and it certainly does not end there! Therefore, this page is dedicated to you - educators, those in libraries, community centers, schools or any other screening spaces of our movie. This page can serve you as guidelines for leading a post-screening discussion and, if possible, inspire and engage your participants and student with creative projects they can connect to themselves.
By using language and tools of art, rather than science and formal educational framework related tools, these guidelines highlight the collective and personal behind the efforts which can lead to greater environment preservation and growth – every account counts and every person can help in their everyday lives.
We here propose two possible ways of post-screening engagement, however, please feel free to mix it up, use only some elements and/or mix them in a different fashion! After all, what counts is that conversation keeps flowing, reflecting our film's central character’s power to uphold us and in the process transform us.
Two ways to explore film’s topics after the screening
It depends how much time and other resources you have access to – from leading a post-screening discussion to diving into personal creative projects with your students and participants, here are some of the ways you can keep the conversation going.
This resources’ lighter and less time-consuming way of engaging with the film would entail screening of the film and leading post-screening discussion on the topics which translate project’s overarching environmental mission.
Another way of engaging with the film would entail a bit more resources and a continuous group of students or participants. As with the before mentioned discussion based engagement, this one starts with the film’s screening, then continues with discussion on some of the film’s relevant topics, but it doesn’t have to end there! We invite you, the educators to engage your participants and students to make creative projects of their own. We will go into more detail on how these projects could look like in just a bit. Students’ and participants’ creative projects could be then presented and discussed upon, bearing in mind the insights and impressions they came across in their creative processes. If you really want to keep this conversation going, you can send us some examples of these creative projects to …… email address, and we will showcase them here, at our website!
Creative projects – age levels
Age levels are based on US educational system standardized age levels. However, you know your students and participants the best so we leave it up to you to additionally evaluate with which of our creative projects they can engage with!
Creative projects ideas
If you happen to work with students and participants up to 5th grade of age, here are some creative ideas you could explore with them!
If you happen to work with students and participants 11 to 13 years of age, here are some creative ideas you could explore with them!
If you happen to work with students and participants 14 to 18 years of age, here are some creative ideas you could explore with them!
Showcasing students’ personal projects within our web page would focus on drawing attention to different humanistic perspectives on nature – human’s relationship to his/hers environment.
All of the projects have one core idea: narrating the invisible, and in both directions: a) offering students the chance to see and come to know their natural environment (in different way) and b) offering other student participants and webpage visitors opportunity to learn more about their environment from their fellow NYC humans.
We hope this page inspired you and cannot wait to see all the things you’re going to create after watching our film!