The third week of VAMPY is starting off with a bang! The Pop Culture class is an interesting take on American history and culture that the students may not get in their traditional school curriculum. We are able to focus on popular trends within different decades and see how those past trends may affect future ones.
A main topic is the course is how pop culture has been transmitted to the masses through the use of TV, radio, and the newspaper. We toured a local TV and radio station to see just what goes into broadcasting in those mediums and visited the offices of the Bowling Green Daily News to learn how that newspaper operates.
Last week the Pop Culture students, along with students from Presidential Politics and Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, went to D.C. for a one-day trip. The students were able to see multiple Smithsonian museums, and in the American Stories exhibit at the National Museum of American History, each student gave a presentation in front of an item she or he has been researching related to the pop culture of its time. They also had a conversation with a curator from the National Museum of American History about what his job is like and how pop culture has influenced the items in the museum.
On Monday the class was able to Skype with Kirker Butler, one of the writers from the TV show Family Guy. They talked to him about the writing process for the show, discussed pop culture influences, and received some advice for their future endeavors. Since Kirker attended SCATS as a kid, the students were able to relate to him and how he got started in his career.
Later on this week the students will be visiting Hitcents, a local company specializing in web design and app and mobile game development. The students will also be creating their very own pop art in the coming days and will explain to the class what makes their project fit the definition of pop art.