Burrowing Owl and friend from animation by Tony Dusko

Science teacher Tony Dusko creates animations and uses inexpensive technology to help liven up his fifth grade classroom and keep the students engaged.

The first animation I saw by Tony was called Some Facts About Owls. He used the video to help get his fifth graders interested in owls. He writes:

It worked! They love this film (even though a cute little bunny does get eaten).

I know a few kids and adults who wold love this too!

From Tony’s about page:

As the son of a commercial artist he was exposed to art at an early age and enjoyed drawing and using up his father’s art supplies. He then went on to study art in college, but also earned a degree in Biology and a certification in Elementary Education. After five years as a microbiologist, Dusko became bored and decided to teach elementary school.

It was during his third year of teaching that he discovered how his artistic background could help motivate his fifth graders to stop talking. One day he created a simple animation of a grilled cheese sandwich telling his students to get ready for lunch. To his surprise, the fifth graders loved it, quickly got ready for lunch, and begged him to make more animations.

So to improve his skills, Dusko began studying animation with Academy Award nominated, Paul Fierlinger, who has independently produced over 700 animated films.  Dusko has since created short films for many school topics and continues to use them to liven up his every day teaching.

Tony is always trying to incorporate inexpensive technology into the classroom to help make learning more engaging and fun. Here is another animation he created that shows us a few examples of how he does this.

I really just can’t say enough about many of the teachers I had while growing up. Their hard work, dedication and patience helped get me to where I’m at today.

I remember walking into my science class one day and immediately my teacher split us up into our labs groups. Sitting before my group on our table was a block of wood, pieces of paper, tape, a meter stick, a weight set, string, and a spring scale that measured force in Newtons. Our teacher held up his homemade handheld contraption that shot a marble at high velocity. He demonstrated the device and said that he wanted us to use the materials in front of us to build our own device that would measure the speed of the marble. He told us we had 45 minutes!

The point of that story is that I still remember that day. That my science teacher inspired me to be creative, to think outside the box and be quick about it! Stuff like that was a weekly occurrence by the way!

So when I hear about teachers like Tony Dusko, it makes me very happy! Plus, he’s sharing his work with the world for others to use as well.

Be sure to check out the rest of Tony Dusko’s wonderful animations on his Notebook Babies YouTube channel.

For more information, visit the Notebook Babies website and if your on Twitter, follow @notebookbabies.