STEM tasks STEM Works!€¦ · hearing the advert to buy our cheese snack. STEM tasks EVIDENCE OF...

STEM Works!

Overview 1 STEM tasks

UICT Assessment in Home Economics

OverviewIn this part of the project, first the pupils prepared a recipe, then they photographed their dishes, and finally they wrote and recorded voiceovers to make a ‘podcast’ or audio advertisement. In each case work began by conducting online research into existing products; and in the case of the podcast, searching for free-to-use audio samples to incorporate into their advertisement.

This part of the ‘Cheese Sensations’ work was assessed with reference to the Desirable Features for Working with Sound. The assessment task made reference to success criteria targeted at levels 3,4 and 5 for Working with Sound. In the examples here, the pupil was judged to have produced podcasting work representative of Level 5. The screenshots are annotated to show where the criteria for Level 5 in working with sound can be seen.

STEM tasks

Assessment Evidence – Pupil WorkThe following pupil work provides evidence of the selected characteristics from the Desirable Features for Working with Sound as described in the teacher’s assessment task.

1. We watched a video tutorial on the whiteboard on how to create a podcast using Audacity. Then we had a go at making a practice recording. We learned how to use the microphones, how to import a sound file, and how to use the editing controls to remove unwanted sounds. We also found out how to control volume by moving the control points up and down, and what to do to save as a .mp3 once the work in Audacity is finished.

Note: This phase of the work represents the ‘prior learning’. It would not be appropriate to run an assessment task until such time as the pupils have acquired skills in using the software. The use of the assessment task is a confirmation, to allow pupils the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do using the skills they have learned. The degree of independence with which pupils can carry out an assessment task is part of the measure of what they can do. The Levels of Progression are competency statements, and as pupils learn to exercise more control and discrimination over what they are able to produce in response to assessment tasks, so they progress through the levels.

2. Then we searched for examples of advertisements that feature cheese snacks on Telly Ads.

3. We researched existing advertisements for cheese snacks on www.tellyads.com. This one is for Philadelphia cheese Splendips.

4. We watched a selection of TV adverts for cheese snacks to get ideas and inspiration.

We considered:• The target audience;• The music choice;• The type of information given in the ad e.g.

nutrition, health advice, ingredients used etc.;• The focus selling point;• Use of catch phrase or slogan;• Company logo/use of font & colours;• How long it lasts for.

Note: the pupil provided screenshots to supplement their evidence but due to embedded copyright they have been removed in this case study.

STEM tasks EVIDENCE OF WORKING WITH SOUND 2

5. When we were ready to make our recordings we used ‘audio network’ on Learning NI to select a free piece of music for our podcast.


Pupil Work (cont’d)

6. We chose a track called ‘Wind Farm’ as we thought it was lively and exciting and would appeal to teenagers. We also thought it would work well as background

music for our speaking part and that it would fade in and out nicely.



7. This is the track ‘Wind Farm’ being downloaded to our folder.



8. This is our very first attempt at recording our vocals for the podcast. We used our draft script below. As we listened back to the recording, we made some

changes to make our script better. We were thinking of how to make our script convince the person hearing the advert to buy our cheese snack.



STEM tasks

This is a podcast by ■ Ashleigh Lendrum ■ Keely Bailie ■ Julie-Anne Montgomery■ All

We are 3 product developers from cheese paradise.

We have been working on a project called Cheese Sensations to encourage young people to eat our healthy snacks rather than chocolate or crisps.

We have made a cheese snack called Eve’s Apples.

Our product is full of calcium and protein which helps you to stay fit and healthy.

Our snack also helps you stay fuller for longer.

The product is unique because it has a combination of cream and cheddar cheese.

We would recommend having this with cream crackers which are supplied with our apples.

It will be in all supermarkets in the chilled section.

There will be a chance to win amazing prizes for the first 3 weeks that our product is out.

Once you have tasted our cheese snack you will never want to eat unhealthy foods ever again.

So give in to temptation !!!

This is our revised version of the script:Our evaluated, edited and final script.

This is a podcast by ■ Ashleigh Lendrum ■ Keely Bailie ■ Julie-Anne Montgomery■ All

We are 3 product developers from the sensational ‘cheese paradise’ company.

We have been working on a project called ‘Cheese Sensations’ to encourage young people to eat our healthy snacks rather than the...

...horrid usual suspects such as crisps + chocolate, which are loaded with heart–hardening fat + salt !!

We have developed an amazing cheese snack called Eve’s Apples.

Our product is full of calcium and protein which helps you to stay fit and healthy + to keep your body beautiful!

Our snack also helps you feel fuller for longer so staying off those baddies is a breeze.

The product is unique because it has a delicious combination of cream and cheddar cheese, and secret savoury flavourings.

We would recommend having this with fresh, crunchy, low-fat cream crackers which are supplied as part of the complete snack.

It will be in all supermarkets in the chilled section from the 9th of April.

The exciting news is that there will be a chance to win amazing prizes for the first 3 weeks that this temptation product is available.

Once you have tasted our cheese snack you will never want to eat unhealthy foods ever again.

So give in to temptation !!!

EVIDENCE OF WORKING WITH SOUND 7


Our first script attempt


9. This is the second recording of our vocals, reading from prepared script.



10. Here we are using the selection editing tool to highlight and delete unwanted sounds from the beginning and end of our vocal recording.



11. We used the normalise tool to create the effect whereby the loudest part of the recording is maximised and everything else is adjusted accordingly.



12. Audio of the ‘Windfarms’ track successfully imported.



13. We adjusted the volume so that the music fades in and out leaving space for the vocal in the middle.



EvaluationWe all had a really good time doing the work for our Home Economics project. This project included us making cheese snacks and also making a podcast. Our snacks are called Eve’s Apples. When we were making our snacks we used loads of different skills to prepare them.

Our podcast included us making our own script, recording it and choosing music for the background.

Working with Others: I worked with two other people, we worked well as a group because we are friends, and took turns at each of the roles. I most enjoyed being the voiceover artist and reading the script of the advert. After the recording was finished, we then had to each make a version of the advert ourselves. This bit of the work took the most time, as I wanted a different piece of music on my advert to what the other two were using.

Audacity: we used Audacity to make our podcasts. I know you can do it with Garageband as well, because I’ve seen it in Music. Audacity is good for this sort of work though because it’s really simple to use (once you have had a few goes!). The most difficult part was recording our voices for the podcast. We had several attempts before we were happy that it sounded professional enough and that we had cut out all the background noise. Audacity lets you keep music and voiceover separate, which makes it quite easy to work on. We used the fade in/out tool to adjust the music in the pod cast. What I like about it is that you can see where you are all the time, and if you need to you can zoom in to the timeline to look at details and get the editing just right.

My podcast: I really liked working with Audacity and doing the podcast. My favourite bit was doing the voiceover, I liked this bit because it was me who wrote most of the script, and I thought I did the reading aloud the best. I also thought that my advert would appeal to people and make them want to buy and eat Eve’s Apples. I enjoyed choosing appropriate music that would appeal to our target audience which is young people. If I have to do another podcast, I would like more time to get the voice recording just right, and I would also use more than one piece of music in the background to give more variety and make it sound like a real advert.

Overall this project was really fun to do.

Note: For this piece of work the teacher directed the pupils to consider three areas of the work when making their evaluations:• role(whatpartdidtheyplayingroupwork)• process(howdidtheycopewithusingthesoftware)• outcome(whatdidtheythinkofthepodcastthey

produced).

In considering their role, the class were divided into groups of three. Each person took turns at being the sound engineer (operating the controls in Audacity to make a recording); voice artist (reading their part of the prepared script) and editor (assembling their own podcast from the saved files).

In this piece of work the teacher decided that the pupil had produced outcomes that are better described by the statements from the Desirable Features at level 5, rather than at level 4. The main reason for assessing at 5 in this case is the degree of independence and thoroughness shown by the pupil. The pupil was seen to be capable of completing all the stages of the activity with a well-developed command of the concepts and controls of the software. The work is not any higher than 5 because some aspects of the podcast that while complete, still have unresolved problems. For example, the speakers on the voiceover are not all equally clear; and as the pupil recognises, the piece would benefit from using additional music or sounds to enhance the effect of the message.

Only a complete portfolio of work can be awarded a level. Individual pieces of work such as this contribute towards the achievement of a level. In the case of the assessment of this piece with reference to the Desirable Features, in each case the evidence has been assessed as representative of the level. It is not the case that the pupil has achieved an overall level 5 in Using ICT as a result of completing the podcasting task.


STEM tasks DESIREABLE FEATURES FOR WORKING WITH SOUND 14

The Home Economics component of the project was assessed with reference to the Desirable Features for Working with Sound. The evidence provided by this pupil was judged to be representative of Level 5. The reasons as to why these judgements have been made are outlined in summary below:

Characteristics selected from the Desirable Features

Assessment Judgement Commentary

Explore

select, edit and evaluate sound files from a range of sources, for example, music loops, recorded sound, CDs, etc.

This can be seen in the pupil locating sound files to download from the Audio Network website, and in their use of USB microphones to record directly into Audacity.

plan a product with clear understanding of audience and purpose (explore)

This can be seen in the groups scripting of the text for their voiceover, and in their review of existing adverts on Telly Ads. Some of the evidence for this bullet point is ephemeral, and follows from the class discussions of websites and advertising in general, and in the group discussions of what to include in the voiceover. Where ephemeral evidence of this sort is useful in deciding what the pupil has achieved, it needs to be recorded in the pupil diary of the project or in the self-evaluation, or else be acknowledged in the teacher comments accompanying the work.

Express

create a product with clear understanding of audience and purpose

Within the work, the group of pupils working together have chosen to target their product at teenagers, at several points they identify that they want to make their product appealing for health reasons, and select sounds and approaches that they think will appeal to that age range.

Note: one or two well chosen screenshots are often all that is needed to confirm specific bullet points from the desirable features.

work with more than one track In the screenshots for the podcasting task, you can see how the pupils have used one track to contain the audio information for the voiceover, and another for the music to be heard at the start and end of the advertisement.

adjust volume within software The screenshots show how the volume has been adjusted to fade the music in and out at the start and end of the podcast.

Evaluate

carry out ongoing improvements demonstrating a clear understanding of audience and purpose and reflect upon role, process and outcome (evaluate)

If you know Audacity, you will know that you need to export the finished work in a format such as .wav or .mp3 once the editing within Audacity is complete. We have no screenshots or commentary of that being done in the work, but because the file is available to play, we know it must have been done.

Exhibit

showcase work by uploading it to their own e-portfolio or to the school’s social network(exhibit)

This is done when the podcast is incorporated into the website, but the evidence for it is not available until the website is posted on the school’s public shared area.

STEM tasks STEM Works!€¦ · hearing the advert to buy our cheese snack. STEM tasks EVIDENCE OF...

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