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The ability to motivate young learners is not always easy, and interest in marine biology in particular is often restricted by extraordinary challenges. Many inner city children lack the transportation needed to visit coastal areas, and financial problems have forced many school districts to drastically curtail field trips.

Rio Films is convinced that if a means can be found to acquaint an ever larger audience of children to the wonders of the ocean's ecosystem, a greater appreciation and enthusiasm for marine life sciences will result. We have noticed how children have favorably reacted to our recent film "Sea Lions" with excitement and enthusiasm and we have decided that instead of taking the students to the beach or out in the ocean for example, we should bring "the ocean experience" to the student by means of nature documentaries specifically structured for young learners. It makes sense. We live in a very visual fast-past information society. Thanks to the rapid growth of educational television, schools and the mass media are partners in the overall educational process. Shows like the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic and The Science Guy have changed the way kids view their world. Rio Films also brings both the entertainment and education to young learners in a very distinctive way.

Rio Films is not an education company. We are film makers who deal with factual material and try to create stories that present these facts in exciting and entertaining ways. Our aim is to provide a constructive experience with our school premieres and live in-person presentations. We all know that books are the key to unlocking the world of information, but when it comes to learning science, books sometimes are not enough. Kids are learning faster these days and respond to visual stimuli in ways we could have never imagined years ago. They need to "see" to believe. They need to feel, touch, hear, smell and sometime taste the natural world.

We can't always take children into the environment to have this true "live" experience, but a documentary with moving images, narrative instruction and sound can come close. The motion picture from the broad educational point of view, is a multiple method of communication. It is especially effective as a technique for telling a story. The whole gamut of human experience may be communicated from teacher to learner wherever a learning-teaching situation exists. Students see real people doing real research in the lab and in the field. Combined with books and lecture, nature films can expand on a young learners imagination making learning science a real adventure. For example, in our latest film "Sea Lions" kids can experience what it's like scuba diving with sea lions off the great Channel Islands; swimming through a forest of giant kelp without ever getting wet! It is not practical or economical to take kids to these remote places like the Channel Islands, Galapagos Islands or the Great Barrier Reef to dive with sharks, swim with seals or march with penguins. But documentary films can take them there!!!

We are confident that inner city children in particular will enjoy and learn from a film experience that takes them to a faraway place; on an adventure they may normally never have a chance to experience. The old adage “a picture is worth a thousands words” is now more true than ever. Visual aides are essential learning tools and a 40 minute documentary contains thousands of exciting and breathtaking images. Science is a tough subject to teach, and documentary films can be a tremendous help. Your students are eager to learn, so ignite their curiosity with an amazing documentary! You won't regret doing it and your students will thank you for it!

Meet "Sea Lions" director Alan De Herrera

 

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