When media analysis is combined with creative production using the Project's "inquiry process" approach, students learn and express themselves through multiple intelligences. These multiple ways of learning, originally defined by Howard Gardner in Frames of Mind, are linguistic/verbal, logical/mathematical, musical/rhythmic, visual/spatial, body/kinesthetic, intrapersonal and interpersonal.

Project-based Learning
Toward the end of each track session, SMARTArt's K-5 students worked with professionals from AnimAction, Inc. to create their final project. After selecting a social issue related to the SMARTArt theme, students used technology tools to produce a 30-second animated public service announcement.

In Years 1 and 2, the student-produced animations targeted the grant's stipulated theme of violence and violence prevention. The animations demonstrate how much information children assimilate about violence from the tough inner-city neighborhoods they live in, and from TV, movies, and video games.

The expressions on the faces and body language of the stick-figure characters in the student animation entitled The Grudge show the horror and sorrow of murder while communicating the message: "Think before you act or you'll be sorry." The animation entitled Don't Get Into Gangs depicts a bloody gun killing; and Please Don't Shoot People portrays a bank robbery, showing the burglars being caught and locked up in prison. Other student-produced animations present positive alternatives to destructive behavior. Fight in the Playground communicates the message: "Stop or pay the consequences" and No More Harm Animals is aplea to "treat animals with kindness."

Technology and Teamwork
Working in teams of ten or less, students apply their imagination and drawing skills to compose their message, plan a storyboard, and illustrate the title, scenes, and credits. They also create and record their own soundtracks, using various percussion instruments and rhythms.

In the process, students learn how to communicate using technology tools, terms, and processes. "I think it's important to understand that the materials we bring into the classroom are based on a professional studio," says Clifford Cohen, President of AnimAction. "We've adapted and synthesized the various techniques and formats but kept the terms as you would find them in a studio."

Students can tell it's the genuine article. In practicing how to share resources responsibly and react appropriately to problems of technology and equipment, they often express, "I didn't realize animation takes so long to do. Now when I look at cartoons I'm going to look at them differently."

In addition to giving students a professional environment, the teamwork involved in the production fosters a positive work ethic. "When students work as part of a team they're learning how to face challenges, accomplish goals, and cooperate and negotiate if they disagree," Cohen says. "And they're learning that it's possible to apply yourself to something that you didn't know anything about and actually produce. I want kids to grow up with a combination of people and media skills that will help them succeed in the 21st century."

Student Showcase
In the Project's first year, all of the students' animated PSAs were consolidated into a video. Although few families attended an after-school presentation of the video, each student took home a copy to share with their parents. In Year 2, a video of the animations was shown to an enthusiastic audience at an end-of-the-year School-wide Student Showcase.

Animation Training
In the first two years of SMARTArt, teachers and artists attended a two-hour workshop after school, which provided them with enough training to enable AnimAction professionals to go in and produce the animations with the kids in one day. In Year 3, teachers were trained and coached by AnimAction staff to produce the student animations "in their own time, in their own style, using our tools," says Cohen.

In Year 3, teachers and artists attended in a full-day workshop to learn about and experiment using what Cohen calls The BOX! Animation Production Studio™. "It's a complete animation system," he says, "containing instruction manuals, lesson plans, a comprehensive video, and a software package that can run on a low-end PC." With it, students and teachers can produce the animations, do post-production, and burn their own CDs. By the end of Year 3, two teachers were actively producing animations with their students using The BOX!.

The children's efforts were recognized through a festival called H2ed in New York, which chose the animation short Playing with Guns, which was produced by Leo Politi students through Project SMARTArt.

Collaborative Thinking and Best Practices
"In creating the animations students really have to think critically about 'How do I convey my message through the use of language and pictures?' observes Richard Alonzo, LAUSD Local District 4 Superintendent. "This is a lot different than 'Let's read a story, discuss what it's about, and write something about it before moving on to the next unit,'" he says. "It gives kids the opportunity to focus and concentrate on one particular activity; to think about it more collaboratively with their teacher, as a group.

Teaching and learning are a social activity," Alonzo continues, "and the activities I've seen that have come out of SMARTArt are the kind that foster those best practices."