Evaluation of Podcast

To conclude, both Steph and I were very happy with the final outcome. It was felt that each of the objectives was successfully met. In my opinion without the visits to the Botanical Gardens, St Fagan’s and the Museum this podcast would have never been thought off. I feel that our skills worked well together in order to produce a fascinating podcast. Furthermore, it should be noted that we used a variety of ideas from each of the educational visits in order to come up with this creative idea; whilst at the same time was up to date. Although this is something that none of us have done before, we both enjoyed the challenge.

Making the Podcast

Carson (2008) rightfully points out that prior knowledge is needed of certain software is needed in order to create a successful podcast. This could be a number of things from adding music into a podcast, to editing pictures or even how to record someone speaking. Steph and I decided that before attempting to make our podcast we would experiment with different software’s first in order to see which one suited us both.  We looked at PowerPoint, Photo Story 3, Windows Movie Maker, Picasa, Audacity and finally Photoshop. After careful consideration, in order to make our Podcast we would not use our own voices and that we would write what we would have to say instead of read as this would be easier for the viewer to understand, because of this we decided against using Audacity as this was software specifically for recording voices and editing the sound.  After further discussions it was finally decided that Windows movie maker would be used to make the podcast and Photoshop would be used to edit the photos that were going to be used in the Podcast.

Photoshop was used to edit the opacity of pictures which allowed the viewer of the podcast to read any text that was put on certain pictures to read it more clearly.

 The feather tool was also used to create creative and unique backgrounds for text.

For the final stage of making our podcast, Windows Movie Maker was used. 

This allowed Steph and I to import all images, edited images and background music that were going to be used for the podcast, which enables us to creative a creative and unique podcast, influenced by our educational trips.

Reference List

Carson. C. (2008) Learn & Used Digital Audio & Podcasting in Your Classroom. California: Shell Education.

Meeting with Anne

In order to confirm our final idea, we arranged a meeting with Anne to discuss if our idea was appropriate. From this meeting it was noted that our podcast had to present something that was relatively new. After the meeting Steph and I used various journals and news articles in order to find out something recent relating to plants and medicine. To our surprise, we found that that a protein of a particular plant could possibly be a cure for cancer. Prigg (2013) noted that the flower of the Nicotiana planet, in which researchers have identified a molecule that usually fights off fungi and bacteria also, has the ability to identify and destroy cancer.

 Furthermore, Macbeth (2014) states that, the defence molecule, called NaD1, works by forming a pincer-like structure that grips onto lipids present in the membrane of cancer cells and rips it open, causing the cell to expel its contents and explode. Steph and I decided that we would stick with our original idea, and start the podcast with plants from the rainforest and medicines that can be extracted from them and later go onto what has been recently found and further explain about the NaD1 molecule found in the tobacco plant.

Reference list

Macbeth. S (2014) Tobacco plant has key to fighting cancer. Retrieved from: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2014/release/tobacco-plant-has-key-to-fighting-cancer Accessed April 2014

Prigg. M (2013) Could tobacco hold the key to beating cancer? Retrieved from:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2597434/Could-tobacco-hold-key-beating-cancer-Researchers-say-plants-defence-mechanism-work-humans.html#ixzz31S5gtF5m Accessed April 2014

Mind Map

Now that all of our visits have now been taken, Steph and I decided that we needed to brainstorm our ideas. In order to do this we used Bubbl.us which we were introduced to in year 1. This allowed us to creatively display our brainstorm to you. As you can see we categorised our ideas according to each visit. It is evident that many of our ideas were derived from plants. Therefore, it was decided that the main focus of our podcast what be about how important plants are as they can be used from medicines.

Educational Visit – St Fagan’s and the Museums

Our second and third visit involves Steph and I visiting St Fagan’s and The Museum. The Museum presented us with many inspiring ideas. Firstly, it was noticed that there was fairly large exhibition on rocks. We thought it might be interesting to look into rocks and further develop this idea into climate change or even space.

 Furthermore, there was a significant amount of information in relation to the Evolution of Wales which got us thinking that we the focus of our podcast could perhaps be on the History of Wales. Additionally, another possible and interesting idea to further look into is how life evolved and the species that no longer exist. 

St Fagan’s offered us many ideas associated with energy. It was fascinating to see how people used to live without relying on technology and electricity, using just coal and fires too cook food and as a source of heating. It would be interesting to see how these have significantly changed through time, as it is evident that not many people rely on coal to heat their homes today. 

Each of the educational visits have presented us with some wonderful and inspiring ideas that we could develop into an interesting and fun podcast.

Educational Visit – Botanical Gardens

As a class we visited the National Botanical Gardens with hope of some inspiration for our podcast. They have ‘over 8000 different plant’s, spread across 560 acres of countryside’

As it wasn’t a very nice day, it got Steph and I thinking about the impact the weather has on plants around the world and the effect this has on food sources. Further into our visit we came across a ‘Fungi Exhibition’ which we were very interested in. The National Botanical Gardens of Wales (2014) states that “The interactive exhibition reveals the intimate details of fungi in a way they have never been shown before, challenging misconceptions and showing how they are vital to the survival of earth.”

  

Finally, Steph and I were very fascinated in the Medicine section of this trip, it was interesting to see how different medicines were made and what they were used for.

However, although each of these ideas seem to be a good starting point for our Podcast, further brainstorming would be needed to decide upon a final idea. There are also two more Educational trips that we can go on to further explore possible ideas for our Podcast.

References

National Botanical Garden of Wales (2014) Retrieved from: http://www.gardenofwales.org.uk/ March 2014

How an out of classroom environment can develop an innovative scientific idea

It was decided that I would be working with Steph and before starting research for our podcast that it would be beneficial to firstly look at the importance of learning outside the classroom. Evidence from Braund and Reiss (2004) indicates that, many teachers believe that learning which occur outside the normal classroom has positive influences on the pupils. Waite (2011) proclaims that a number of forms of learning outside the classroom can enhance children’s learning, from museums to marshes. Furthermore, Braund and Reiss (2004) suggests that, access to outdoor learning environments allow children to see examples of scientific phenomena making it easier to understand. These sorts of trips can also have the ability to change children’s misconceptions about certain scientific beliefs that they hold.

DfES (2006 cited in Waite 2011) argues that, Learning outside the classroom is about raising achievement through an organised, powerful approach to learning in which direct experience is of prime importance This is not about what we learn but more importantly how and where we learn. (p.3)

For this purpose, Steph and I will be visiting a number of Educational facilities in order to develop our scientific ideas and make a final decision on what the focus of our podcast will be on.

References

Braund, M., and Reiss, M., (2004), Learning Science Outside the Classroom. London: RoutledgeFalmer

Waite. S. (2011) Children Learning outside the classroom, from birth to eleven. London: Sage

What is a podcast?

Bradshaw and Rohumma (2013) note that a “podcast is a digital audio file that can be distributed over the internet” (p.93). Podcasts can come in many different forms such as interviews, discussions, video clips or even information guides. Podcasts allow everyone and not just journalists to broadcast their ideas out loud and share information in a creative way. According to Richardson (2010) Podcast, just like blogs and wiki’s are now widely used throughout higher education to promote creativity throughout learning.  

For this particular assignment we have been asked to work in groups of no more than three people to produce a podcast to show how an out of classroom environment can develop an innovative scientific idea. In order to do this, we will be undertaking our research on educational trips such as St Fagan’s. Once we have an idea that each person in the group agrees on we will then do more specific research into the chosen topic in order to come up with the podcast. In the specific assignment criteria it is stated that ‘The podcast can be in the form of a film, documentary or interview or any other contemporary idea.

References

Bradshaw. P and Rohumaa. L. (2013) The online journalism handbook. Oxon: Routledge

Richardson. W. (2010) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. London: Sage