When Robert and Laura Sams want to make children laugh, they know just how to do it. We met them at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival where they won an award for their children’s film. The sister/brother team have been creating media for children for more than a decade with their company Sisbro Studios, whose goal is to help children discover the natural world through film, songs, and live presentations. But how does that transfer to conservation?
“We don’t need to stress the heavy topics. If you stress the problems too early then kids will develop apathy because it seems too big to tackle. Research shows that kids hit too early with problems (of nature) will grow up to withdraw their emotions from it.” Rob explains. Instead of stressing the problems, Sisbro focuses on getting people to fall in love with the natural world, and they say the ideal time is when children are elementary age. But even Rob admits that there are limitations with video, “I think it is a good introduction, but there is no replacement for kids getting out and being outside.”
Believe it or not, many of the children will get their first introduction to even local wildlife through a Sisbro presentation or film. “I recently did a presentation at a local library just two hours from the ocean and when I asked the classroom who had seen the ocean. No one raised their hands.” So Rob and his sister Laura introduce the children to sharks through their video Great White Shark Song and game-show style presentation, “Are You A Shark?” They get children to fall in love with snakes with a singing and dancing crocodile music video. “It is not a hard sell for kids at all, because animals are cool at that age.”
Unfortunately there few resources available for programs like Sisbro’s so it is hard for them to bring it to schools. “We would get no calls if we said “we want to do a presentation about wildlife, so we use our wildlife as a way to talk about literacy and communication.” Rob believes that it is important for children to be able to communicate about the things they love. “We love sharks so we did a presentation on sharks. We talk to the kids about how we created the story - writing process, editing, and the steps to the final product. We demystify the process so they will be inspired to communicate their own stories.” Rob can see the success in their work because children go home to write their own stories, teachers say apathetic kids become motivated to create, and children remember what they learned from Sisbro when they return the following year. Their secret:
“When we write, we try to think of one thing we want people to walk away with - that is what we start with. The whole film needs to support that. It is as simple as that, but it's not really simple at all.”
When Robert and Laura Sams want to make children laugh, they know just how to do it. We met them at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival where they won an award for their children’s film. The sister/brother team have been creating media for children for more than a decade with their company Sisbro Studios, whose goal is to help children discover the natural world through film, songs, and live presentations. But how does that transfer to conservation?
“We don’t need to stress the heavy topics. If you stress the problems too early then kids will develop apathy because it seems too big to tackle. Research shows that kids hit too early with problems (of nature) will grow up to withdraw their emotions from it.” Rob explains. Instead of stressing the problems, Sisbro focuses on getting people to fall in love with the natural world, and they say the ideal time is when children are elementary age. But even Rob admits that there are limitations with video, “I think it is a good introduction, but there is no replacement for kids getting out and being outside.”
Believe it or not, many of the children will get their first introduction to even local wildlife through a Sisbro presentation or film. “I recently did a presentation at a local library just two hours from the ocean and when I asked the classroom who had seen the ocean. No one raised their hands.” So Rob and his sister Laura introduce the children to sharks through their video Great White Shark Song and game-show style presentation, “Are You A Shark?” They get children to fall in love with snakes with a singing and dancing crocodile music video. “It is not a hard sell for kids at all, because animals are cool at that age.”
Unfortunately there few resources available for programs like Sisbro’s so it is hard for them to bring it to schools. “We would get no calls if we said “we want to do a presentation about wildlife, so we use our wildlife as a way to talk about literacy and communication.” Rob believes that it is important for children to be able to communicate about the things they love. “We love sharks so we did a presentation on sharks. We talk to the kids about how we created the story - writing process, editing, and the steps to the final product. We demystify the process so they will be inspired to communicate their own stories.” Rob can see the success in their work because children go home to write their own stories, teachers say apathetic kids become motivated to create, and children remember what they learned from Sisbro when they return the following year. Their secret:
“When we write, we try to think of one thing we want people to walk away with - that is what we start with. The whole film needs to support that. It is as simple as that, but it's not really simple at all.”