Mennellmedia.co.uk is a Developing Online Resource for Interactive Animation for Education

At Mennell Media, we're developing animated learning videos for children's literacy and science education. Our real time 3D animations are structured into interactive learning experiences designed to engage and motivate students, elevating the learning experience in both the classroom and the home.

We have applied our interactive 3D real time animation tools specifically to phonics education for early literacy and the nutrition and digestion module of the GCSE curriculum (UK). We created 3D visualizations of biological processes and humorous character animations that together produce an entertaining and effective learning narrative. In addition to the PC based real time interactive learning experience, videos can be rendered to the web or portable device formats, providing very convenient access consistent with the lifestyle and habits of contemporary students.

An integral aspect of both subject developments was the creation of animated worlds: Organisms for the Nutrition and Digestion module, and 'Fruitphonics' for the early literacy module.

In Organisms,the human digestive process is demonstrated through real time interactive 3D simulations and character animations. This interactive content is designed to stimulate the interest of the students, while developing their understanding of the underlying science concepts and the relevance to the student's lives. In this animated setting, the reasons why humans have to eat can be understood by exploring the flow of food through the human body, the break down of the food inside the digestive system, and the absorption of nutrients into the cellular structure of the body. The nutrition and digestion videos, together with additional learning materials, help students to conceptualize the entire digestive process in terms of the underlying biological principles and their own life experiences. We can also render the Nutrition and Digestion content to video for web and mobile distribution, increasing accessibility and learning possibilities.

FruitPhonics (www.fruitphonics.com) is the early learning module. For this application, we have used videos in an interactive learning framework to support the development of children's phonics skills. As with Organisms, Fruitphonics has a make-believe world, in this case it's called 'the Glade' where the FruitPhonics Gang present a lively and amusing series of interactive video animations for children between the ages of three to seven years old. The module is designed to support most of the phonics learning schemes known as Synthetic Phonics, in the UK.

As with most phonics based learning schemes, children learn by first relating sounds (phonemes) to the corresponding letter representations (graphemes). In this way children learn the Phonetic alphabet, which is then used to decode the spelling of spoken words. The aim of the site is to provide all of the basic 44 phonemes and 20 or more more additional 'blends' together with the 100+ highest frequency words in the English language. The animations are designed to present the phonics material in an amusing and exciting way while demonstrating the correct pronunciation and supporting the development of children's phonics skills. A primary objective of the project is to develop interactive tools for use in the classroom and the home, to help parents and teachers support children's phonics adventure.

The Literacy and Science education videos on the www.MennellMedia.co.uk website help make learning both 'Phonics' or 'Nutrition and Digestion' effective and fun for students while providing creative learning resource for teachers and parents to support children's learning.