Magnations Part 2– Creating the Animations

The MAGMA group has been following up on the recent visits to Mount Stuart Primary School, as described in our recent blog post.

Over the course of the eight-week workshop programme local animation company Winding Snake, along with the Magma team, helped the local school children to create short animations about magnetic materials using what they had learnt from the MAGMA team. Creating the animations involved the use of professional animation equipment and software, with the children writing their own scripts and storyboards, creating their own characters and props and also recording voiceovers.

The animations created by the children covered various topics, including future power networks, and the team were delighted to be joined by a representative from Western Power Distribution for one of the sessions to help the children learn more about this important subject area. It was exciting for the children to learn more about how the magnetics they had been learning about are applied in a real-life context, whilst for Western Power Distribution it was useful for them to discover the excitement of local children in STEM / engineering topics and experience how Cardiff University engages with the local community.

Other topics which feature in the animation films being made by the children include motors/generators, future transport and the fundamentals of magnetic materials, all of which are extremely relevant in the drive for an enhanced green economy and the team are very optimistic about how the animations will help with community education in these areas.

The MAGMA team have recently been joined by Nadine Aziz, a second-year engineering student at Cardiff University, who has joined as a summer intern to help with the next stage of the project which is to widely distribute the animations in the local community via outreach events and also online to maximise the impact of the animations.

Keep an eye on this blog over the next few weeks to see more about how this work is progressing.

This project was funded through the Cardiff University Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) Research Wales Innovation Fund (RWIF).

MAGMA CURRENTLY HAS A TIME-LIMITED OPPORTUNITY FOR COLLEAGUES FROM INDUSTRY OR OTHER ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS TO USE OUR FACILITIES FOR FREE. Contact magma-project@cardiff.ac.uk to find out more