Final piece

This is our final piece of work, we added background music to make it sound more like a documentary and were very proud of it. Overall I enjoyed this project, with the only problem being the video not working a first.

What we did?

After attend all three of the trips we decided to focus on extinction as it was something that interested us both and we thought was presented very well in both the National museum of Cardiff and the Botanical Gardens of Wales. We thought that for our podcast we would produce a documentary, using videos and pictures with our voice over the top.

We began by conducting our research and found a vast amount of information about extinction not only from our visits but also from books and the internet. It was then necessary to produce a script so that we were able to know what needed to be said and ensure that we covered all areas we had researched. We were both well accustomed with audacity so believed this to be the best way of recording our voices. The programed allowed us to edit it which meant that when we messed up our lines (which happened a lot), we were able to go back and tidy it up. When this was completed we decided to use movie maker to create our documentary as we had previously used it for another assignment. Through youtube we were able to pick videos that we thought would best suit our podcast and windows movie maker allowed us to edit then so that we could choose what clips we wanted where.

The only problem we found was that when we tried to open the video at home it did not work, however we were able to resolve this issue and luckily the podcast worked. Overall I enjoyed this assignment, it was very fiddly which I found irritating but we were very proud of our overall project and because I am very enthusiastic about animals I enjoyed the topic we choose.

Extinction

We decided to do out podcast on extinction as we found it very interesting and came up with the idea whilst visiting the National Museum of Cardiff.

Extinction is the end of somethings life, this can happen to any type of organism and is when the species has completely died out.  It is difficult to find when an organism becomes extinct as the range of the species may be vast and they may be difficult to find. Sometimes a species that is said to be extinct can sometimes 're-appear' which is known as Lazarus taxa. Usually extinction is caused by climate change, natural disasters and human intervention, sometimes the species are able to adapt and evolve to fit in with the changes around them, however this is usually not the case and unfortunately they die out.

One of the most notorious organisms made extinct are the dinosaurs, these were made extinct by the crashing of a meteor into the earth which destroyed all food sources and killed off the majority of them. However some were able to survive such as amphibians, they were able to adapt to the drastically changed climate. Today hundreds of animals become extinct each year with this usually being the result of human intervention, due to the ever growing population these species habitats are becoming destroyed and they are hunted for their fur, meat and horns.

 

A number of organisations have been established so as to ensure the survival of these rare species, parks are establish and breeding programs so as to not only ensure their safety but to try and repopulate. Sadly however the majority of these animals protected will eventually die out.

National Museum Cardiff

 

The final trip we attended was the National Museum in Cardiff, this is where we came up with our final decision on our podcast as there were so many different areas to look at. The museum itself was really good, there was so much to see and there was a lot of interaction and things to see, which was so much better than the Waterfront museum in Swansea. The museum was also divided into different sections with our favorite being the evolution of Wales section that not only had animals see today but also dinosaurs, mammoths and other animals made extinct.

 Being a huge dinosaur fan it was decided that we would try and incorporate what we had seen into our podcast, we then found the mammoth section and the extinct animals and realised that this would be an interesting thing to talk about. The reasons for these animals becoming extinct and animals still around but on the brink of extinction.

We came away from the museum with a clear idea of what we were going to do and had gained so much information from the museum that we were confident in what we were doing. It was also an interesting topic to look into. Overall the museum was the most useful out of all three trips as it gave us our final idea.

St Fagans National History Museum

 

I have been going to St Fagans since I was a little girl so when I found out that this was going to be one of our research areas I was more than excited. For me it is one of the best museums in Wales, it produces a lovely atmosphere and has so much to do that you could easily spend the day there. As far as an outdoor classroom it has to be the best, not only do the people who work in the museum dress up in the era of the building they are working in but they also have old fashioned shops and a school where the children are encouraged to participate in a Victorian themed class. 

For me the best part of the museum is the huge manor house situated at the back of the museum, you get to tour the house which shows you into each room and has boards and sheets of information about the people who owned the house previously. There is also a museum at the entrance to the park where students are encouraged to dress up in old fashioned clothes. 

 

From this trip we were able to come up with a number of useful ideas, with the main one being sustainable development, each house is from a different era and you are able to see how standards of living have advanced throughout time. The museum also contains a house which was created in 2000, it is called ' house for the future' and contains technology for what they thought at the time the world would look like now. Interestingly in some instances they did predict correctly, the house however has now been closed so that they can update it to predict another 10 years of technology. This gave us the idea of looking into advances in technology and how quickly the world is changing. 

Overall this trip was incredibly useful, not only did we have a fun day out but we also came up with some useful ideas for our podcast.