Science - Podcast

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Assignment Part 2: The final outcome

There is our final stop-motion animation video :) hope you enjoy watching it!

And also remember to - REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE 

FINAL STOP-MOTION ANIMATION VIDEO

When we had to go into uni to show the class our stop-motion animation, we got to watch everyone else's. It was amazing to see all the different stop-motion animations that everyone had created.  Some of the ideas people came up with were really interesting to watch. One of the films was really empowering and had a really good message about bully, which was really quite emotional but empowering at the same time.

Science - Podcast Review

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed taking in this project, and the whole aspect of using an outdoor leaning environment to inspire our research.  It was interesting to find and discover all the facts about plants and their amazing uses that I was unaware of before starting this and how may different plants are relied on so much all over their world for their healing properties and how they are used for medicines.

StrengthsI believe that our biggest strength is how we were able to link medicinal plants and our trip to the Botanical Garden so well and in addition we found some additional information about plants for health. I also feel that the information that we came across about the Lingonberrie plant was a fantastic find and linked in really well with our podcast.  Furthermore I feel that as a group we all worked well together and all contributed effectively in order to produce and find some really great information; going to the Botanical Gardens again in our own time to obtain added research really benefited the podcast as well.

Weaknesses

The program that we used to create the podcast which is called Audacity was quite difficult for us as a group to use as none of us were particularly familiar and experienced with it and its different function.

Improvements If we had the opportunity to do the podcast again I think it would be beneficial to learn a bit more about Audacity to fully understand how it works, and add extra effects e.g. music and sounds.

This module has been very fun as it is completely different to other modules that I have done in Uni.  I have enjoyed all the creative parts to the module as I love anything that is creative and I would definitely choose to do this again. 

Thank you Anne :)

Science - Podcast Medicines in May at the Botanical Garden

As we were researching for extra information we came across 'Medicines in May' which was an event being held in the National Botanical Gardens.  When I saw this I immediately thought it would be a brilliant idea to go and see what it was all about.  In the description on their website noted that there would be talks, tours, exhibitions, events and family activities all linked to the theme of Plants for Health and includes reflections of the historic use of medicinal plants that they have there at the Garden.

Here are some pictures from the day: 

Science Podcast - Lingonberries

Whilst researching different medicinal plants we found a new up plant that has recently been in the news and media, as well as talked out by many people and researchers, which is called the Lingonberry plant. This is a plant in which its berries are meant to prevent weight gain.

Berries are an amazing group of fruits with a wide variety of chemical compounds that confer benefits to our bodies.  

Berries contain a group of chemicals called polyphenols which are potent antioxidants that help protect the fruits tender flesh from the sun’s radiation.  These polyphenols also work effectively within our bodies to neutralise free radicals from environmental factors such as pollutants and from the metabolism of foods that we ingest.  Everyone dreams of being able to eat chocolate and pizza all day without putting on a pound, and now researchers could have found a simple way of making this dream a reality

 The results of a study carried out by the Lund University in Sweden were recently published in the peer reviewed Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism which proved the efficacy of lingonberries and their ability to prevent weight gain.

In this study, mice were fed with a high fat diet for 13 weeks which was intended to mimic the fatty western diet. They were divided into groups and 20% of their diet comprised of berries. Each group of mice was fed with a different berry which included raspberries, blackberries, acai berries and lingonberries.

After three months, the mice that were fed a high fat lingonberry diet had the best results. Their weight gain was no different to the subjects that were fed a low fat diet and additionally their blood sugar and insulin levels were low as well.

The researchers concluded that lingonberries prevent the harmful effects of a high fat diet and suggest that lingonberries could be useful in preventing obesity, aid in weight loss goals, and its related disorders. However, an obvious limitation is that the study has not looked at the effect of lingonberry consumption on body measures and health outcomes in humans and crucially the mice that were fed lingonberries still put on weight with the high fat diet, just not as much. And obviously as the berries were only tested on mice it isnt 100% reliable for humans. 

Further more this amazing discovery comes with the problem that certain individuals mainly being celebrities are most likely to become addicted to these miracle berries as a method of prevent weight gain.  Even though this new discovery and finding is exciting, it should not be seen as an excuse and interpreted as a license to eat an unhealthy diet as long as you add lingonberrries! So if anyone is trying to lose weight, relying on these lingonberries for weight control is not a wise or healthy approach.

Science - Podcast Are there any disadvantages?

Disadvantages

Although everything we have spoken about so far seems to be positive, some people also have reasons as to why using plants as medicines can have a negative impact.

Alisa Price believes that Not all medicines benefit from being made using plants. She believes The manufacturing systems we currently are very high quality and perfectly adequate for the majority of medicines we need. The industry has invested enormous money and time into fine tuning the manufacturing of medicines, and we have all benefited in terms of product quality, safety and reliability.  Plant biotechnology is very new, and the manufacturing details have not yet been fine tuned.

Assignment Part 2: Stop-motion animation

The whole process of making and creating this stop-motion film has been really enjoyable and both me and Sara have really enjoyed the whole process.  At first with the both of us not really being that good with IT and technological things, we were quite worried of not being able to create a stop-motion animation that was good. 

Once we had taken the last shot for our stop-motion animation, it was time to watch the whole thing over were all the shots would be linked together to create the stop-motion animation film. After so much time, effort, dedication and hard work we put into making the film as good as we possibly could, we were so shocked once we had played the whole thing over and couldn't quite believe that we had actually created this film and how professional it looked.  We are so proud of how it has turned out and it just goes to show that hard work and a little bit of belief in ourselves has payed off.  I would definitely like to make another one and see all the different things that could be created and will definitely use Zu3d when I go into a career of teaching or working with children,           

Science - Podcast Plant Research

Gentiana lutea (Yellowgentian) is found in the mountains of central and southern Europe. Gentian root (which can be as thick as a person’s arm) has a long history of use as a herbal bitter in the treatment of digestive disorders. The root contains one of the bitterest substances known to science which stimulates the taste buds and brain reflexes to promote the secretion of saliva and gastric juices. As such it has been used as an appetite stimulant in the treatment of anorexia. It is said to be especially useful in states of exhaustion from chronic disease and in cases of debility or weakness of the digestive system; strengthening the human system by stimulating the liver, gall bladder and digestive system.


Prunus africana (African cherry) is found in mountain tropical forests in central and southern Africa and Madagascar and has been used for centuries for its hard and durable timber as well as for the medicinal properties of its bark, which is used to treat malaria, fevers, kidney disease, urinary tract infections and more recently prostate enlargement (benign prostatic hyperplasia). Overall, the medicinal retail trade for P .africana is estimated to be US$220 million/year (WWF, 2001).

Rauvolfia serpentin

a (Indian snakeroot, Sarpaghanda) is member of the dogbane family, found in India, Pakistan and south east Asia But the plant is also an important healer, used for stomach disorders, snakebite and epilepsy. R. serpentine is also the source of the alkaloid resperine, which revolutionized the treatment of hypertension in the 1950s and is still commonly prescribed today. Chemically similar to serotonin, resperine was also used to treat severe mental illnesses due to its powerful sedative properties

Common flowers and plants

Most of these plants and medicines are unfamiliar with us however there are a lot more common ones in the UK such as:

The California Poppy which is an effective (anxiety reliever)

The blood flower is a type of tropical milkweed with toxic milky sap that is emetic (it makes you hurl). It’s also historically favored as a heart stimulant and worm appellant.

Alfalfa which can treat morning sickness, nausea, kidney stones, kidney pain and urinary discomfort. It is a powerful diuretic and has a bit of stimulant power, helping to energize after a bout with illness. It’s a liver and bowel cleanser and long-term can help reduce cholesterol.

When taking about plants its amazing to discover that many medicinal plants can be found in your own back garden.  After finding this out I thought I would have a look in my friends garden to see what types of plants I could find.

Aloe vera: it contains various compounds that reduce inflammation, swelling, redness, pain and itching.”

Uses: For burns, cuts and minor abrasions; also as a mild laxative

Dandelion:  a nutritious healing herb that stimulates the flow of bile. It enhances the body’s ability to eliminate toxins.

Uses: As a diuretic (may help with PMS bloating), prevents gallstones and cleanses the liver. “Dandelion leaves contain noteworthy amounts of vitamin C and beta-carotene and are considered an antioxidant that help sets the stage for preventing many diseases,” says Cervone.

Lemon balm: has a calming effect on heart palpitations and an agitated state of mind.

Uses: Soothes stomach, calms nerves.

Lavender: used in both medicine and cosmetics.

Uses: As a sedative, stress reliever, to restore calm and relieve tension.

Parsley: Parsley leaves, roots and seeds all contain an oil with significant diuretic and mild laxative properties. Parsley also inhibits the secretion of histamines, a compound produced by the body that causes allergies, hives and hay fever.

Uses: Breath freshener, allergy relief, tummy troubles.

Science - Podcast Medicinal Plants

To begin simply, plants equal life. They are the primary producers that sustain all other life forms. They regulate air and water quality, shape ecosystems and control the climate. They provide food, medicine, clothes, shelter and the raw materials from which innumerable other products are made. These benefits are widely recognised but poorly understood. Because of this plants are both a vital part of the world’s biological diversity and an essential economic resource for human existence. Yet plant extinctions are occurring at a rate unmatched in geological history, leaving ecosystems incomplete. Current extinction rates are at least 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background rates, with a quarter of the world’s coniferous trees known to be in jeopardy and as many as 15,000 medicinal plants under threat. Whilst the extinction of a species is the ultimate loss, the process of extinction itself has serious consequences for local ecosystems. Plant to plant interactions effect both resource availability and habitat structure, and play an important role in mediating the responses of natural systems meaning the loss of any one species weakens an ecosystem’s ability to adapt in a rapidly changing world.

Science - Podcast Research

  RESEARCH





After visiting the botanical garden and asking ourselves all these questions we continued to research the need for these plants and their main uses. The information that we discovered was that around 80% of the world’s population depends directly on plant based medicines for health care and because of this many botanical gardens play a large role in medical plant study and research, cultivation and conservation. As this information was really interesting we decided to base our podcast on plants and their uses this medicine and general health care.

We were able to gather and learn a lot of interesting things about medicinal plants.
Medicinal plants harvested from the wild Provide both a relief from illness and a source of income, over 70,000 plant species are thought to be medicinal. Loss of habitat combined with over-harvesting threatens the survival of many of these plant species. Luckily one of the Botanic gardens main jobs is to ensure their conservation. The first botanical gardens originated in Europe in the sixteenth century. The reason for this was the cultivation and study of medicinal plants - at a time when medicine and botany were essentially the same discipline. The tradition of cultivating and displaying medicinal plants has been continued by many botanic gardens across the world which is shown by BGCI study in 1998 highlighting the medicinal plant collections of 480 botanic gardens. Botanic gardens provide a permanent location around which an infrastructure can develop. Around the world, they have become centers for the research and study of disciplines as diverse as taxonomy, ecology, agronomy, horticulture, ethnobotany and habitat restoration, all of which inform medicinal plant conservation.

Botanic gardens have a long-standing connection to medicinal plants in particular, since the sole purpose of all early botanic gardens was to grow and study medicinal plants. They are inherently well-placed to respond to the very specific local conservation needs of medicinal plants and the people who rely on them for health and livelihood in a particular region. Moreover, they are probably the most important agencies for the conservation of native medicinal plants, since plants are not often the priority of other conservation bodies and government agencies related to agriculture pay little attention to those species of undetermined economic use. BGCI maintains the PlantSearch database which records data on plants in botanic garden collections. As of August 2007 the PlantSearch database held details on over 2,540 botanic gardens, 681 of which have uploaded their species data, totalling 505,000 records of approximately 140,000 different taxa. The database is available for public use, although garden addresses are only accessible after requesting further information from the garden itself, due to the valuable nature of some of the plants held.

Science - Podcast inspiration

Scientific and creative learning

Assignment Part 2

For the second part of our assignment we had to get into 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.  The podcast could be in the form of a film, documentary, interview or any other contemporary idea.  The podcast has to reflect one of the visits that we have been on; which was either The National Botanical Gardens, the National Museum of Wales or St Fagan’s.

Once we had been on all of the trips our inspiration for the podcast come from The National Botanical Garden.  This Botanic Garden of Wales is set on historic parkland, dating back around 400 years and is such a beautiful place to visit. The National Botanic Garden of Wales opened in May 2000 and is the first national botanic garden to be created in the new millennium.

The gardens mission is to inspire, educate and conserve has not only made this place a wonderful but has made the whole place fascinating and relevant too.  Spread across 560 acres of beautiful country side, the botanical garden has an amazing collection of over 8000 plant varieties.  There are a stunning range of themed gardens that appeal to a wide range of visitors, from those who just love the sight and smells of flowers to those who want to know about Medicinal plants or the latest DNA research into plant evolution.

Being in an outdoor environment got us thinking about what we were seeing and we started to ask ourselves different questions. After discussing our thoughts we came up with a few common questions that we both wanted answered. These were:

• ·         Why grow so many amazing  plants?
• ·         Why so many different plants
• ·         Are they intentional
• ·         What are they used for
• ·         Do they all have different purpose
• ·         Do they grow them there to preserve or use
• ·         Do they grow them from the beginning

Assignment Part 2: The Music

Now that we have finally finished our stop-motion animation we have to add sound to it.

"Sound effects play an important role in conveying action.  Music helps express emotion". Michael Geisler

I never thought it would be so to choose to simply choose what music/sound to use.  It took us the whole day experimenting with so many different sounds and music to find the best one that suited the stop-motion film.  We tried everything slow music, fast music, acapella until finally we stumbled across Jack Johnson - The 3 R's Reduce, Reuse, Recycle song which was perfect as the lyrics in the song are all about recycling.  Adding this song to our stop-motion animation and then playing it over with the music included made the whole animation so much more effective and really fun to watch.  

We this was complete we saved the stop-motion animation to anything and everything we could like memory stick, sending to our emails, every device we could so that we new there was no way we could lose it.

Below is the song we chose:

Assignment Part 2: Stop-motion animation

We have finally nearly finished our stop-motion animation and we have taken nearly 4000 shots to get to the final stages.  The most difficult part was creating the paper origami moving game or fortune teller as some people like to call it.  We thought the initial process of making it would look great in the film as there is so many parts and paper folding required to make it.  This was the tricky part, and took us a very long time to get reach shot and image right.  Once particular part of making it involves tuning the folded piece of paper over onto the other side and as we had to try and make this movement without our hand being in any of the shots it proved to be such a difficult procedure to do.  We tried absolutely everything we could think of, holding the edge of the paper with the tip of our fingers slightly out of the screen, but this failed as in every shot you could notice our hand or finger.  We tried putting objects behind the paper, gradually getting bigger ones so the paper would rise, but once it got to a certain height you could see the object underneath in the camera screen.  After trying all of these we decided to attach some string to paper to lift it up and twirl it around,  this worked brilliantly but the only problem we had was you could see the string in the camera.  Our final and last attempt at this was to pull a piece of my hair out and attach this to the paper to pick it up and turn it around, how we came to think of using my hair I don't know and its really funny to think that it actually worked.  

Everything seems to be coming together nicely and we have been able to include a lot of useful quotes and information about recycling into our stop-motion animation.