Cooper buys GoPros for classroom and Student Government

GoPros are not just for extreme sports anymore.

Math teacher Keith Cooper has found a way to bring the excitement of the point-of-view video cameras to school activities.

Cooper feels the cameras are a creative way to catch students in action to promote student government and enhance classroom learning.

“As student government advisor, I figured that [the cameras] would be good for making promotional videos,” Cooper said.

Cooper’s AP Topics class came up with a plan to buy the GoPros through the fundraising website Donors Choose. Cooper then bought two cameras, one of which is a GoPro Hero4: Black Edition, the other of which is a similar action camera.

The money was also used to purchase several accessories for the cameras.

At first, Cooper planned to use the cameras solely to capture data in his Topics class using slow motion features, but he later realized that the cameras could also be a way to promote student government.

“Student government does all these different things, and people just do not know it. I have already started doing short video clips that will eventually get put together for a student government promo,” Cooper said.

Senior Aden Fischer-Brown, a member of student government and an AP Topics student, hopes that the GoPro technology will convince people to join student government.

“GoPros have capabilities unlike other cameras, and I think when other people see the technology we get to use in Stud Gov, as well as the cool and fun videos, they will want to be a part of it themselves,” Fischer-Brown said.

Cooper has recently used the GoPros to film student government planning, cooking and serving food at the Inter-Faith Council in Chapel Hill.

“We have chronicled volunteering using a variety of different shots such as interviews and time lapses,” Fischer-Brown said.

Student body president and senior Joyce Yao hopes that the videos will show the work that student government does.

“There are so many dedicated and passionate student leaders involved in Student Government, and their work is often over-looked,” Yao said, “The GoPros will give people a glimpse of all that Student Government does for the school and the community.”

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