Alum Laurie Snyder (right) was treated like royalty in Leeds.
The Father of Cinematography? Students “wowed” by Water on Wheels
The WOW Factor Did you know that it takes 2,900 gallons of water to produce a pair of blue jeans? Nearly 3,000 people have been soaking up lessons like that from WOW — and it’s not quite a year old. Water on Wheels (WOW) is a mobile learning experience that focuses on the science of water, and was created by the UofM’s Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research (CAESER) as a community outreach vehicle. The unique teaching tool allows schools to increase their students’ knowledge about the water cycle and its impact on daily life. Instead of taking an off-site field trip, WOW is a 24-foot educational trailer that brings the field trip to schools and events at a fraction of the cost and time. Inside WOW are colorful, interactive educational displays that are designed to appeal to students in grades 4 through 6, but it is available for older and younger students as well. Because the source of drinking water for the Mid-South is groundwater, one central display in WOW spotlights the Memphis aquifer system, a vast underground reservoir with some of the cleanest water on Earth. Other displays include the water cycle, water distribution, water use, where water goes, and conserving and protecting water at home. “In fourth grade, the students are expected to recognize the components of the water cycle and describe their importance to life on Earth,” says Logan Caldwell, a teacher at Campus School. “The Water on Wheels experience seamlessly fits into our unit of study. My students were able to learn so much in such a short amount of time because of the hands-on experience and the incredible visuals that WOW possesses.” “My favorite part was looking at the toxic water,” says one of Caldwell’s students. “I really thought the last one was clean! And I never knew that denim had so much water in it.” Brianna Woods, who teaches at St. George’s Independent School, says, “A really valuable part of WOW was the display where they get to see how much water is wasted when we do certain things like flush a toilet, take a shower or leave the water running. I had shown them a video about water conservation beforehand, but the manipulative gave them something real to look at.” “It’s great to see the kids light up and interact with the WOW,” says Scott Schoefernacker, CAESER senior research scientist. “You can see that they are engaged and soaking up information. It’s a perfect example of active learning.” Adds Michelle Dry, CAESAR education and outreach director, “WOW allows students to engage with the subject of water in a fun, interesting manner.” In its first year, WOW has traveled to public and private schools across Shelby and DeSoto counties. For more information, or to schedule WOW for a school or event, visit memphis.edu/wateronwheels or call 901.678.4229. W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U
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It’s a whodunit of epic proportions, one that brings into question who was the true Father of Cinematography — and one that stretches to the University of Memphis campus. “My great, great grandfather, Louis Aime Augustine Le Prince, was an early pioneer of the motion picture camera,” says UofM staff member Laurie Snyder (BA ’83, MA ’89). So early, in fact, that documentary filmmaker David Wilkinson has spent years trying to prove that Le Prince — and not Thomas Edison — indeed shot the world’s first moving pictures while the Frenchman was living in Leeds, England, in the late 19th century. According to Wilkinson, Le Prince filmed the moving picture sequences Roundhay Garden Scene and Leeds Bridge Street Scene using his single-lens camera and Eastman’s paper film in October 1888. These were several years before the work of competing inventors such as Auguste and Louis Lumiere and Edison, according to several film experts. “The earliest film that we can definitively date is the Roundhay Garden Scene,” says Snyder. “We are able to date it because Sarah Elizabeth Whitley appears in it. She died only a few days after the filming.” Snyder was flown to Leeds in June as a guest of honor for Wilkinson’s world premiere of The First Film, a documentary that seeks to establish Le Prince as the Father of Cinematography. While there, she donated family archives to the British Film Institute at the National Media Museum in Bradford and to the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. “I was interviewed for the film because I am keeper of the remaining family archives,” she says. “I have letters from Le Prince to his wife, Lizzie, as well as affidavits from people who witnessed the creative process. These affidavits were used during the Mutoscope lawsuit against Edison’s claim that he invented the camera. I have photographs (mostly copies) of Le Prince and the family, and most importantly, original sketches that show the process of what he was trying to create along with notes. “The most exciting thing is a contact sheet with two frames of the Roundhay Garden Scene that are not publicly known and that are not on any website or publication that I know of. On the back is a description of what transpired, written by Le Prince’s son Adolphe who appears in the film.” The early history of motion pictures was marked by heated disputes over patents of cameras. And therein lies the “whodunit.” “The story takes a dark turn when on Sept. 16, 1890, Le Prince boarded a train at Dijon bound for Paris and was never seen again,” says Snyder. Theories abound that rival filmmakers had a hand in his disappearance, or possibly personal problems led to his vanishing. “I have my own theory about what happened,” says Snyder. “No, I don’t think Edison had anything to do with his disappearance. He and his brother were close. Le Prince was about to collect an inheritance that would have amounted to about $150,000 today so money wasn’t an issue. Was he murdered? Yes. But why?” His mysterious disappearance in 1890 allowed Edison and the Lumiere brothers to be hailed as the fathers of cinematography, but Wilkinson’s award-nominated documentary seeks to prove otherwise. FA L L 2 015
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