PODCAST ASSIGNMENT

Scientific and Crestive Learning: An out of classroom learning environment

For the group podcast I was in a group with Sarah-Jayne Beynon, Rosie Holt and Sheridan wood. Once we had decided on the group members we had to decide on a place that is an efficient out of classroom environment for children to develop children's scientific enquiry and innovation skills. We all decided that we would focus on the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. The opening statement of the National Waterfront Museum States that,

‘The national  waterfront museum tells the story of industry and innovation in Wales, now and over the last 300 years’ – (National Waterfront Museum)

The next stage was to decide when we can all go as a group on a tour of the museum to see what materials and learning techniques it offers the children, this was our biggest implication due to our busy time tables. However, we all attended a trip to the museum and walked around to see all of the figures and displays they had to offer for out of classroom learning. We used Sheridan’s mobile device to video the evidence of the visual learning aids, we also took many images of the displays. I got involved with the educational games and puzzles that they had to offer to show what the children interact with whilst at the museum, Sheridan also recorded this to add into our podcast. I helped Sheridan record some of the videos for our podcast. Once we had seen all that the museum had to offer we went to the reception and I asked if there was anyway we could interview someone on their thoughts and ideas towards the museum being a place of out of classroom learning, but there was no available at that time. Sheridan then took the phone number and rang back to arrange a meeting with a member of staff.
After attending the museum we all went to Sheridan’s house to begin our research on how museums supply children with innovation skills within science. I found information and statistics that we could use within our podcast from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) where I found that 26% of school teachers take their pupils to museums to develop their science knowledge (Inspiration, Identity Learning, 2004). Once the videos and images that we had taken was uploaded on to Microsoft Movie Maker we each decided on who was going to narrate each part and we also created a script to work along-side with. I carried on researching museums and out of class room learning environments so that I was able to contribute to our podcast. We then took it in turn to film ourselves and add it in to the podcast at relevant points. We had to make sure that every part of he podcast would flow in to one another and was also relevant to the last point made. I then created references for the information that I had put in to the Podcast so that they could be entreated in to the end of the podcast.

Here is the link to our Podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTZb9rD0AgI&feature=youtu.be




REFERENCES

2004. Inspiration, identity, Learning: The Value of Museums. [Retrieved February 2015] Available at:
     https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/museumstudies/rcmg/projects/inspiration-identity-learning-1/Inspiration-%20Identity-%20Learning-The%20value%20of%20museums.pdf 


National Waterfront Museum [Retrieved February 2015] Available at:
     http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/swansea/about/

Animation Assignment

PEER REVIEW 

We presented our animations to the rest of our Education Futures class and was then asked to decide to make a peer review of one of the animations. After observing all of the animations, all of which took a lot of effort, I decided to review Rhian Davies' animation which was called 'Solution no Pollution'. Pollution is a major issue within our world and we have to look after our planet in order for it to continue with it's existence, which is he message that Rhian is helping to send out.

Whilst watching all the animations, this  was one of the animations that stuck in my mind because it had such a clear and effective message in the anmation.
 Rhian created this animation on her own so she designed the sets and the scenes and all of the models and props and also created all of the sound for the animation which clearly took a lot of time and effort and also a lot of patience. It is clear to see the amount of imagination went in to creating this animation, especially when the Co2 is rising from the burning fire in to the sky and then being reabsorbed by the tree, that on its own would have taken a lot of time.

What really stood out for me in this animation was the sound that was added to it, the Ed Sheeran sound track that was used seems very fitting and also the sound effects that was played on top of the sound track.
Another aspect of he animation that stuck out was that the it was created with only paper, whilst many used play dough or other materials. Although the animation was shorter than others and Some may have wanted to see more, Personally I think that the duration of it did not affected the quality of the animation. I believe that the phrase 'short and sweet' comes to mind. To sum it up this animation was clear, precise, imaginative and effective.

Here is the link to watch Rhian's stop motion animation
http://educationfutures92.blogspot.co.uk

Animation assignment

EVALUATION
The stop motion animation proved harder to create than we initially thought it would. The first problem we faced was taking each frame with the play dough models. We struggled to get the models to stand up on their own and often found that we needed to re-shape the models. Re-shaping the models meant that when putting the models back on the scene they had to be put back in the exact same place, if they were not in the same place then video would not have a continuance to it. We also had to be careful when it come to the movement of the characters, if we moved one of the models too much or not enough then again there was a lack of flow to the video as a whole.

This image shows Rosie re-shaping our play dough models, to make the models balance on their own. 

Personally, I believe that if I had to do create an animation again, to improve it, I would construct a story board before designing the models or scenes. By making a story board you have a clear idea of what you need to do next and what props you will need prior to making the animation.
We also faced problems making our animation, when it come to working out a timetable to work on the animation because me and Rosie were never free on the same days. In relation to this issue I believe that the animation could of been completed in a shorter amount of time if it was done individually as having the same free time was a problem for us.
Another concern we faced was the sound effects that we were adding to our animation. Firstly, we decided that we would record our own voices to add to the animation, however when we were recording the voices they were not clear and one voice was always clearer than the other. We then thought against this idea and added some sound effects that recorded from you tube and also added the song in to it, jut this segment of the animation took a lot of hard work and time. However this was not seen when we payed the animation as a presentation because the sound did not work on our animation, to which the reason why is not clear. We felt huge disappointment when the sound did not work because it did not show how much work we put in to the sound side of the animation.
The lighting for our animation was also a concern because the animation was not completed on the same day or in the same place so the lighting of our animation was changing because the weather and surroundings was changing.
The ZU3d app was not as easy to work with as it may look, the fact that this application is used within schools for children is quite concerning because us, as third year university students struggled to get along with this application so I can struggle to see how children can relate with this software.

Animation Assignment

FINAL PIECE 


After a lot of hard work and dedication, we completed our stop motion animation. This animation took a lot of time and patience to create, but hopefully we have managed to send a clear message to every individual and those who are in need of help.


Below is the link to you tube to watch our final animation with full sound 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EkOVQHyq2Lg

Animation Assignment

The creation of our animation took a very long duration of time, once we had taken all of our frames and completed the scenes we needed to add sound affects and background music. We came to the decision that we needed background music which would help protray our message, we decided to add in the song Roxanne by the Police, as it would assist our animation in telling the story.

Below is a link to 'The Police- Roxanne' 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3T1c7GkzRQQ

We decided upon this song as it was very fitting to our story, there was also one line of the song which stood out for us which was,

'Roxanne you don't have to wear that dress tonight, walk the streets for money, you don't care if it's wrong or if it's right' 

This line from the song summed up our animation just in that one verse. We added this song to our animation by recording it from our mobile phone using the ZU3d application and adding it to our animation. We also used sound effects for our animation such as a car beeping and a car speeding away, we then fitted these on to the correct part of our animation.

Below is a link to the car horn sound effect that we used for our animation, 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qkGJCJpFJZY

This image below is the last frame in our animation, it shows Roxanne in the rehabilitation scene with Royston sitting under a tree, talking to each other. It shows how far Roxanne has come in comparison to the beginning frames.

REFERNCES

You Tube,. Retrieved January 2015. Available at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3T1c7GkzRQQ

You Tube,. Retrieved January 2015. Available at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qkGJCJpFJZY

Animation Assignment

With our story being based on a typical night for 'Roxanne', to set the scene of a back alley way we needed to have a brick wall background covered with graffiti n order for it to look realistic. We also needed to create a background for the rehabilitation scene. Below are the backgrounds that myself and Rosie designed. 

 


To create our animation we downloaded the ZU3d application on to a laptop and worked mostly from home. We created the animation by taking images using the camera on the laptop, and then making the smallest of movements with our characters and taking another image, this then created the frames and when played in a sequence it shows as a video. This stage of the animation was rather difficult when it came to the movement of the characters, if there was too much movement or not enough then then video as a whole would not flow.


This image on the left shows the ZU3d application, whilst we were creating our animation.

Within our animation we wanted to highlight that no matter how bad of a situation you are in there is always help out there If you want it, help can make you change your life and you as a person. At the beginning of our animation we showed 'Roxanne' in suggestive clothing, which was a pink crop top and short skirt so when it came to the rehabilitation scene we had to show a difference in her that would protray our message. We did this by changing her clothing to make her more sophisticated.

            This image on the right shows the difference in Roxanne in the rehabilitation scenes. 


'Zu3D stop-motion animation software has been developed to give children (and adults) of all ages the freedom to create amazing animated films quickly and easily, in school and at home' (ZUlogic ltd, 2012) 






REFERENCES 

ZUlogic ltd, 2012,. Retrieved January 2015. Available at: http://www.zu3d.com

Animation Assignment

Once myself and Rosie decided our storyline for our animation we began to think about characters. We both decided to work with play dough as we thought it may be easier to work with when it came to moving and adjusting them. Within our animation we have two characters, the main character which the animation is centered around is a female named Roxanne and the second character is a male named Royston.

                                             

Whilst we made the characters for our animation we came up with the story line and decided on what props we would need to make to set the scene and also what type of background. We decided that the story for our animation would be to show 'Roxanne' on a typical night in her life which would include drinking and sleeping on the streets and also prostitution. We were then going to move on to show 'Royston' finding Roxanne sleeping on the streets and he would take her to find help and assist in beating her alcohol addiction. The final scene will be showing 'Roxanne' in a different light, she will be sober and in rehabilitation. The point of this storyline is to show that there is help out there if you want it and that no individual is alone.

When it came to the creation of our cast for the animation we decided that Rosie would design the characters as I designed the props we needed. The first scene in our animation will take place in a back alley, surrounded by rubbish, bins and empty bottles of alcohol.