TCC Faculty Member Receives Statewide Award for Her Stop-Motion Animation

Tulsa Community College’s Dr. Leann Fiore received statewide recognition and a “Great Ideas for Teaching” award for her creative and innovative use of stop-motion animation to teach Anatomy and Physiology.

“Stop-motion animation brings objects and drawings to life as a fun alternative to traditional tutorial/presentation videos,” said Dr. Fiore. “In the virtual learning environment, students still needed to experience the virtual specimen dissections and anatomy model exploration similar to a hands-on lab experience. Through stop-motion, students can see step-by-step just as if they were doing it.”

Fiore already had the idea for students to use stop-motion animation to demonstrate they understood information with their science labs. However, when TCC moved to online learning in March 2020, she decided to use stop-motion animation herself. The shift to virtual learning created challenges for traditional science classes with a face-to-face laboratory experience that had traditionally been a key to the learning process.

In the past 11 months, she created a YouTube channel for her “Pop Up Biology” videos and those have since been shared with instructors across the nation accumulating more than 58,000 views. Fiore’s YouTube channel has also been shared by the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance and other outreach organizations.

“Stop-motion has many educational uses, such as animating static lab models, realistic tutorials, and immersive dissection videos,” said Fiore. “In fact, students can produce their own stop-motion projects instead of a slide presentation and I can really tell if they understand what they are learning.”

So far, she has created 15 videos, each of which can take between six and 10 hours to create. Fiore even has a makeshift studio set-up in her home with equipment to help her make the videos.

For this remarkable work, the Oklahoma Association of Community Colleges presented Fiore with one of two “Great Ideas for Teaching” awards along with $500. She also earned a “TCC Goody Award” by President Leigh Goodson for her remarkable and creative approach to developing virtual and online resources for students.