Students of TIP Fellow Awarded at National Constitution Center March 21, 2025 – Posted in: Uncategorized

Three students of Trey Smith, a TIP fellow and teacher at the Marian Anderson school, recently earned a first-place award at National History Day Philly for creating a documentary detailing challenges and changes that have shaped Chinatown’s complex history. The documentary, “Changes to Chinatown: Rights and Responsibilities” was produced with the help of stop-motion animation software Smith learned about in a fall 2024 TIP workshop.

The workshop, titled “Animation and Learning” was led by Penn School of Design professor Joshua Mosley. In the workshop, participants learned about teaching accessible and effective methods of stop-motion animation through a combination of discussions and hands-on demonstrations. After the workshop concluded, in addition to introducing the animation software to his class, Smith used 3D printing to create stop motion animation stands based on a model he received from Mosley.

Smith’s students created the documentary for National History Day, an organization that encourages middle and high school students to create projects around a historical theme. The group presented their documentary at the National History Day Philly competition, held at the National Constitution Center on Thursday, March 13th. They earned first place in the Junior Group Documentary category and will now advance to the statewide competition.