A scaffold (guide) for planning a Grime Scene Investigation podcast

The podcast/ vodcast should run for about 5-6 minutes and highlight the results of your team’s investigation.

There should be 7 sections to your podcast and for a six-minute podcast, each section should be about 50 seconds long. You should choose 2-3 photos per section and each photo will play for about 10 seconds.

The sections should include an introduction, information from each of the different scientists (these were the roles which you were put into on the day), and a conclusion.

This is how your podcast should be organised:

1 Introduction, including land use and general information about the bay 5 Fish dissection

2 Scientist and Environmentalist interview (Environmental Scientist) 6 Water quality tests -Water Quality chemist

3 Plankton study (Microbiologist) 7 Conclusion

4 Biotic study (Biologist)

Begin by writing your script

The whole team should write the introduction and the conclusion.

1 Introduction. This should include:

  • The aim of the podcast. (The aim is to present the findings from your environmental teams investigation into the state of the environment of your estuary. Remember this will be given to the hypothetical Bay City Council for their ‘State of the environment report’).
  • Some general information about the estuary, i.e. where is it? How big is it? How big is the catchment?
  • The reasons for concern about the estuary. There are a lot of different land uses around the estuary that may be contributing to the overall health of it.

2 Scientist and Environmentalist interview (Environmental Scientist)

  • List some things the scientist and environmentalist discussed with you that may be affecting the health of the estuary. i.e. stormwater pollution etc

3 Plankton study (Microbiologist)

  • What were the results of your plankton study?
  • Did the microscope study indicate an abundance and variety of plankton caught on the day?
  • Give some examples of different kinds of plankton you saw.
  • What does this suggest about the health of the start of the food chain in your estuary?

4 Biotic study (Biologist)

  • What did you observe at the biotic station? Were you able to catch any organisms? Did you observe many fish, birds or other organisms around the estuary? What does this suggest about the estuary as a good habitat for a variety of estuarine organisms?
  • What did the fish trap catch? What does this suggest about the abundance and variety of organisms in the estuary. Although you may not have seen them on your investigation, organisms do come into the estuary. Explain a couple of ways organisms may be adapted to living in their habitat from your observations of organisms at the biotic station.

5 Fish Dissection (Ecologist)

  • Your investigative team had a closer inspection of one or two organisms by carrying out a dissection.
  • What hypothesis were you trying to prove, and what were your conclusions?

6 Water Quality Tests (Water Quality Chemist)

  • What were you testing for at the water quality station and what were the results?
  • Did your results indicate the water was clean? (You should compare your results to clean water)

7 ConclusionFrom all of your investigations of the estuary, what general conclusions can you make about the state of the environment of Georges River/Port Hacking/Sydney Harbour.

Once you have written your script, practice reading it out loud and time yourself.

Now choose two or three photos, which illustrate what you are talking about.

You may have time if you are organised to add some sound effects. Do you have some good music that you could include which relates to what you are showing? Remember, if your podcast goes on a web site, which it may, you need copyright for using other peoples music. Garage Band does come however, with a whole range of sound effects you can use for free. Google Creative Commons for pictures etc. Music that is not copyright: