Students Create Documentaries Highlighting Six World Conflicts

Mr. Edwin Lipowski teaches three AP Human Geography classes at Oak Forest High School. Every year, his students study six major world conflicts. This year, he wanted to try something new which would provide his students real workplace skills and experience while also showcasing student creativity and knowledge on the subject matter.

He challenged his three classes to create a documentary.

The rules were simple; each class had to work together to create one long form documentary totaling forty minutes that covered all six conflicts. How roles and responsibilities were assigned was completely up to the class.

As a result, students applied for the roles they wanted amongst their group of peers. Roles ranged and included project manager, video director, video team members, writing director, writing team member, prop director, prop team member, quiz and research team member, etc.

“I wanted them to work together as a team or similarly to how they might work in a company,” says Lipowski. “Students chose what role they would like based on their own personal skillset and vouched why they should have that role.”

Students were given roughly two weeks to create their documentary which would depict conflicts of Myanmar, Kurdish Separatism, Basque Separatism, Darfur, Kashmir, and the Yemen Civil War. The students worked with staff in the Oak Forest High School library who provided green screens, video editing advice, and other technology support.

When the big presentation day came, Lipowski greeted students and said, “I know this is the first time we are trying this project out. I want you to know that overall I thought you all did a really good job.”

Through the videos, Lipowski hopes the students and viewers will come away understanding centrifugal forces. Lipowski says these are themes and underlying similarities that can be seen through different conflicts across the world. He explains that while all of the conflicts depicted in the documentaries are different, they have similarities which can teach us a lot about how conflicts begin and end throughout history.

After such success with the project and positive student feedback, Lipowski says he will implement the project again for next year’s Oak Forest High School AP Human Geography students.