Broken Arrow Geography Teacher Encourages Students To Learn Through Presenting News Report

It takes a lot to get a story on TV: research, interviews and getting video to go with the story.

A seventh grade class is creating a newscast by turning their lessons into a news report.

Students in Barry Marbach's seventh-grade geography class at Sequoyah Middle School are learning all about the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.

But instead of taking notes for a test, they will present the information they learn in a different way.

"Over the next few days, we are going to take this information and put it into a three-minute newscast, and we have expertise with us," Marbach said.

With the help of News On 6's Kaitlyn Deggs and Jordan Tidwell, students like Scarlett Bureos are finding facts and learning how to share them in a news story format.

"What I learned is how there was a major decrease in people and how much damage the tsunami did," said Scarlett.

Mr. Marbach does this project each year. He wants his students to better understand the information and says that happens when they learn in a fun way.

"Isn't it cool if the buzz in the school is what some of the kids are learning in geography?” he said. “They are in the hallways talking to their sixth-grade friends, their eighth-grade buddies, and they are telling them that they are getting to be a news reporter. That's cool. They don't do that if they are reading a paragraph out of a book."

The kids will start filming on Tuesday.

They'll get away from their classroom desks and behind the anchor desk.