LESSON 4: Science Communication Guide - Editing 90-Second Stories

OVERVIEW

This is part of a four-lesson Science Communication Guide. Full guide and additional lessons linked here.

This lesson brings students into the heart of the editing process, where technical skills meet creativity to shape their science stories into something truly impactful.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will:

Develop basic editing skills, including arranging and trimming footage to create a logical and engaging story flow.
Learn how to enhance their videos with graphics or text that emphasize key points.
Practice providing and incorporating feedback to clarify their video’s message for their target audience.
Export their videos in a format suitable for platforms like YouTube.

PART 1: Editing Workshop

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Instructions: Start with an introduction to the app — e.g., CapCut — that the class will use to edit their videos. Guide them through simple tasks like importing clips, organizing them to best tell the story, removing extra footage and incorporating onscreen elements like text and graphics to support the message.
- Here are some beginner guides on how to use one of our favorite mobile editors, CapCut :
  - CapCut (using on any device)
  - CapCut In Action
Hands-On Task: Allow students to begin editing their own footage. Encourage them to focus on creating a clear sequence that supports the story’s goal and keeps it concise. Remind them to aim for a logical flow that keeps the viewer’s attention.
Teacher Tip: Encourage students to be selective about the clips they include—this is their chance to tighten up the story. Suggest using text overlays or simple graphics to draw attention to the most critical points, and remind them that each second in a 90-second video matters!

PART 2: Peer Review for Feedback

Estimated time: 15 minutes

Instructions: Arrange students in pairs or small groups to share their edited videos and exchange feedback. Direct their focus to three key areas: the video’s message clarity, how well it addresses the target audience, and whether the editing choices enhance the storytelling.
Discussion Points: Guide students to offer constructive feedback by asking questions like, “Does the video make the goal and message clear?” and “Is it engaging enough to make someone want to keep watching?” Encourage students to think about how the editing choices help (or could better support) the video’s purpose.

PART 3: Finalizing and Exporting

Estimated time: 10 minutes

Instructions: Show how you export the video in a format appropriate for YouTube (updates for the size of the video: 1080p resolution, MP4 file format). Go over these settings with the class so that students understand how to prepare their work to share online.
Hands-On Task: Have students export their final videos with the recommended settings, getting them ready for sharing on platforms like YouTube.

EXIT TICKET

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Task: Ask each student to jot down one editing technique they found valuable and one piece of feedback they received that they feel will help them improve their video storytelling skills in the future.
Extension/Enrichment Activity: For students who complete the basics early or show an interest in going further, introduce options like audio balancing, color adjustments, or adding additional text and graphics for a polished final product.

RESOURCES

Google Doc version of this lesson

Relevance

People are attracted to information that helps them make good decisions. If you like music, you find musician interviews relevant. If you’re looking for a job, the business news is relevant. We need to depend on relevant information that helps us make decisions.

Story Angle

In news, it’s a story’s point or theme. It's the lens through which the producer or writer filters the information they have gathered and focuses it to make it meaningful to viewers or readers.

Source: ThoughCo.

Audience

The people who read, watch and consume news. Often, journalists think about audience and newsworthiness in similar ways. How will the news story serve their local or national audience? Who am I writing the story for and why?

Story

An account of past or current events. In journalism, stories are presented with a combination of people, facts, and typically includes a beginning, middle and end.

Character

A person or other physical being in a narrative. Stories are made up of different characters who provide information and help shape the narrative with their knowledge, experience and perspective.

Revision

The process of changing and updating your work based on feedback with the goal of making it stronger. To successfully revise your story, listen to other perspectives, be open to reconsidering parts of your story and remember not to take feedback personally - it's about the story, not about you.

Script

A document with transcribed (written-out) soundbites and voiceover narration. A VIDEO script is a two-column document with the audio (soundbites and voice over) in the right-hand column and a description of what the audience sees (visuals) in the left-hand column.

Conflict

When violence strikes or when people argue about actions, events, ideas or policies, we care. Conflict and controversy attract our attention by highlighting problems or differences within the community or between groups. Sometimes conflict can be subtle and manifest as tension.

Explainer video

Narration and/or voiceover (VO) with a host, commentary, research, personal experiences, explanations, infographics, nats (natural sound), music, entertainment.

Sequence

A sequence is a series of shots of an action or scene. A classic action sequence consists of a combination of at least three shots of an action in sequential order.

A-Roll

The primary video and audio that drives your story from beginning to end.

Montage

A selection of separate sections of video that form a continuous, edited piece.

Evidence

The availability of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid

Fact

Something that is known or proved to be true.

Research

An investigation into and study of sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.

Source

A source is an individual, company, document or more that can provide information to fuel a new story. In order for a story to be considered verified and to maintain a reputation as a news outlet, it is important to have a credible source.

Critique

A detailed analysis and assessment of something.

Story Arc

An example of using a little person to tell a big story. For example, you want to tell a story about pollution in your community’s water system. That is a big issue. Your video will use the story of a person (character) to illustrate the effects of bad water quality.

Feedback

After someone reviews your work, it is good practice to receive feedback, or an evaluation of your work based on certain standards. Feedback from multiple perspectives is an important part of the process. Masterpieces are rarely created in isolation.

Fact-check

The process of verifying the accuracy of a piece of information.

B-roll

The supplemental footage used to visually support your A-ROLL.

Search: broll.

Knowledge Constructor

Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others. (ISTE)

Evaluate technological advancements and tools that are essential to occupations within the Arts, A/V Technology & Communications Career Cluster.

CCTC AR 6.1: Research the impact of potential new technological advancements related to this cluster in the future.
CCTC AR 6.2: Analyze the technological systems that are apparent within the various pathways in this cluster.

Demonstrate the use of basic tools and equipment used in audio, video and film production.

CCTC AR 2.1: Assess workplace conditions with regard to safety and health.

Creative Communicator

Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. (ISTE)

Analyze the interdependence of the technical and artistic elements of various careers within the Arts, A/V Technology & Communications Career Cluster

CCTC AR 1.1: Summarize the features of the partnership that technology and the arts have in developing presentations and productions.
CCTC AR 1.2: Analyze how the roles of creators, performers, technicians, and others are similar and different from one another.
CCTC AR 1.3: Discuss how specific organizational policies, procedures, and rules help employees perform their jobs.
CCTC AR 1.4: State how various Career Pathways within the cluster work together to generate productions, media, and other activities.

Reading - Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.7: Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10. 8 (Not applicable to literature)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.9: Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).

Plan and deliver a media production (e.g., broadcast, video, web, mobile).

CCTC AR-JB 3.1: Analyze the elements of a newscast production.
CCTC AR-JB 3.2: Analyze individual announcing competence.
CCTC AR-JB 3.3: Identify wardrobe suitable for on-camera appearances.
CCTC AR-JB 3.4: Analyze production functions..
CCTC AR-JB 3.5: Demonstrate promoting productions.
CCTC AR-JB 3.6: Analyze how image capturing and graphics design support the development of electronic presentations.
CCTC AR-JB 3.7: Distinguish amongst various musical radio formats.

Speaking and Listening - Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Writing - Research to Build and Present Knowledge

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.8: Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Writing - Production and Distribution of Writing

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grades 9–10.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

Lesson | 1 Week