Ecosystem Documentary - Criterion A

September 9th, 2014

1. Explain and justify the need

How can humans help sustain the ecosystem?

Ecosystem consists of living organisms and non-living organisms and

how they interact with each other. Science plays a big role in all this because
living things depend on non-living things and vice versa for basic needs to
survive. Humans' activities have caused air pollution, which in return have
caused the population of animals to be interrupted. If the ecosystem were
interrupted, every living thing would be interrupted too. If one animal's
population increases or decreases, it would affect the whole ecosystem. For
this documentary, I am going to include ways to make sure the population of
animals and plants can be kept at a constant number using human
technology.

2. Identify and prioritize the search

I am going to do the ecosystem of a park. At the park, many animals

live together and depend on each other to live. There are living things such
as cats, dogs, birds, soil, water, and trees all together in an ecosystem.

Primary Research

For my primary research, I will be doing two sets of questions. Besides

researching about the ecosystem, I will also have to know the features of a
good documentary. Questionnaires and surveys will be distributed to people
so I can get some feedback to improve the quality of my product. I need to
create awareness using my video and get people's attention.

Questionnaire Survey on documentary

Choose your answers honestly! :)
1) Do you like to watch documentaries?
Yes ______
No ______
2) If Question 1 is yes...
What kind of documentary do you like to watch?
3) In your opinion, what makes a good documentary?
4) Do you have recommendations for me to be able to make a good
documentary?

Questionnaire Survey on ecosystem

1) Do you know what an ecosystem is?
Yes _______
No _______
2) When you go to parks, what do you usually do?
3) Are parks always well kept and clean?
Yes ________

No ________
4) What kind of animals and plants do you usually see at parks?
5) Do you know that animals and plants depend on each other to live?
Yes ______
No _______

Secondary Research
Every living organism needs energy to live, which they get from
various sources. Plants get energy from the sun through photosynthesis
process, and herbivores then eat plants. A secondary consumer then eats
the herbivores, tertiary consumers eat the secondary consumers and the
quaternary consumers then eat the secondary consumers. If even one
animal's population were interrupted by various factors, it would cause chaos
to the whole ecosystem. If one ecosystem were disturbed, all the other
ecosystems would also be affected.

When animals die, they decay and rot away or will end up being eaten
by scavenger animals such as foxes and crows. The decomposers such as
flies, worms, fungi and bacteria decompose animals that are not eaten by
scavenger animals. The decomposers gain energy from the body of dead
animals and produce waste of their own. Their waste is then decomposed,
returning nutrients to the soil. The nutrients help plants grow and develop.

The ecosystem has been damaged by humans through so many ways

such as pollution and exploitation of natural resources. There are different

types of pollutions but the most common one in a park is air pollution. Beijing
has been known to have a bad pollution that can affect the plants and
animals.

When factories, power plants and cars release harmful gasses such as
sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, it could cause the gasses to become acids
when they enter the atmosphere and react to water vapor. This could result in
acid rain, snow, sleet, fog, acidic particulates or gases. These gases can be
really harmful to living things, even humans. Even if only one type of animal
were affected by it, it would make a big difference.

The other problem that has affected the park is through human
activities. When people go to parks, they do not take care of the surroundings
and they do not throw rubbish at the places provided. When it rains, water
might be collected on the waste, which provides new living habitats for
mosquitoes. This resulted in the increasing number of mosquitoes.

It is important to help sustain the ecosystem of a park because it is

supposed to be a place where people can relax on weekends or their free
time. If the ecosystem of a park is interrupted, it might result in interference
of different animals coming to the park. Children especially would not be able
to spend time at the park, worried that it might harm them.

There is no exact solution on how to make sure the pollution stop but
there are many precautions that can be done by everyone. Everyone can help

by saving energy that are not in use, recycle (it helps in reducing production
emissions) , buy environmental friendly products, throw garbage at the
designated places and try to use more public transportation.
There are also measures taken by science experts. Scientists have
developed a computer model that uses GPS for location and speed to
estimate the time people spend at different places. The technology allows
scientists to link the location and things done with air pollution
measurements and the health effects. The other type of technology includes
smart phone applications that are developed for it to be able to detect
various air pollutants. This helps warn people of different levels of air
pollutions although it does not help plants or animals.

3. Analyze existing products

Through the video showed in class on how past year students did their
projects, I get the idea on how it can help me find a solution for my problem.
Through the video, it showed how a good documentary and a not-so-good
documentary look like. A good documentary is an informative documentary
with interesting music and clips. Interviewing people that have good
knowledge (science teachers, people that work in the field) is a good way to
gain information, especially for a primary resource.

Summary on Documentary Survey

For the survey on documentary, I gave the questionnaire to twelve
people. Eight people out of twelve people said that they like to watch
documentaries. For question two, people give different answers for it. Some

of the answers include documentary on their favorite celebrity, documentary

on animals' lives and documentary on the journey of successful people.
For question three, the one answer that was common was that a good
documentary is a documentary that can educate people, interesting and
achieves its goal on the target audience. Recommendations to make a good
documentary are -- to make sure to include pictures, suitable music and
useful information.

Analysis
Based on the survey given to twelve people, we can conclude that
there are a fair number of people that like to watch documentaries. Different
people like to watch different documentaries, but the thing that all the
documentaries have in common is that all of them are informative and give
out knowledge for the viewers to learn from.
People gain benefit from good documentaries instead of reading books
or other reading materials. Most people define a good documentary as a
documentary that can give out knowledge and is interesting. I can also use
the recommendations to create a high quality documentary for viewers to
watch and benefit from. The survey has given me opinions of different people
for me to create a good product.

Summary on Ecoystem Survey

For the survey on ecosystem, I gave the questionnaire to ten different
people. Out of ten people, six people know what an ecosystem is and the
other five people do not know what an ecosystem actually is. For question
two, there are various answers such as 'sit and enjoy the scenery, jogging,
chat with friends while strolling and bring pets for a walk at the park.
For question three, eight people said no. This shows that most parks
and not kept clean as they were supposed to. For question four, most of the

answers are the same. People wrote answers like cats, dogs, birds and trees.
Some wrote fish and ducks if there's a river. For question five, everyone
answered yes.

Analysis
From the survey, we know that some people still don't know what an
ecosystem is and how an ecosystem works which means I will have to include
an introduction of ecosystem in my video. People usually go to parks to relax
and walk around. Some people jog, and some people even walk their pets at
the park. This shows that a park is a place where people get to enjoy
themselves.

The answer for question three is not a positive answer because most
people said that parks are not kept clean like they were supposed to. Parks
are supposed to be kept clean so the air is fresh and the surroundings are
nice. Question four gave us a view on animals that are usually seen at parks
and how they relate to each other. Different parks however, have different
animals in it. For question five, everyone knows that living things depend on
each other to live and this shows that people still don't want to play a role in
protecting the environment even though they know that it can harm the
environment.
From the secondary research done, I have learnt that living things depend on
each other to live.

4. Design Brief

A good Documentary
There are a few key features in making a good documentary. To not
make a documentary boring, a moving picture (video) is definitely better than
still pictures in certain times. The pictures should not be still so people would
not get bored. It is also important to not talk all the time and let some videos
and clips do the talking instead. If one keeps talking, people might even get
bored of it since not everyone likes to keep listening to explanations.
Alternating between narrations and clips would be a good way to make a
documentary watchable.
Although not necessary, it is also better to include subtitles in
documentaries if my accent when speaking in English can result in confusion.
The other important element is to make sure the background noise does not
mix up with the naration. If music is needed as a background, it should not be
louder than the voice.

Software
I will be using electronic devices such as a camera and a cellphone to
record clips for my video. After that, the clips will be transferred to a video
editing software, iMovie. I will be choosing iMovie because it is a reliable
software and I have used it to do previous projects. I am familiar with iMovie
and it would save me so much time if I just use it instead of learning ways to
use a new software.
iMovie enables me to add background music, edit the clips, change the
display color and add captions. I also already have the iMovie software in my
computer so it should not be a problem for me to use it without any problem.

This software will help me a lot in making my video and speed the making
process of it.

Citation

1. "Food Chain: EnchantedLearning.com." Food Chain:

EnchantedLearning.com. Enchanted Learning, n.d. Web. 03 Sept.
2014.
2. "Decomposition." Decomposition. Countysideinfo, n.d. Web. 04

Sept. 2014.
3. Dowdey, Sarah. "How Acid Rain Works" 05 August 2007.
HowStuffWorks.com.<http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/cl
imate-weather/atmospheric/acid-rain.htm> 09 September 2014.
4. "Ways to Reduce Air Pollution | Plain English Guide to The Clean

Air Act." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 08

Sept. 2014.
5. Tsiokos, Basil. "Good Advice! 8 Documentary Dos & Don'ts From a
Vet Programmer." Indiewire. Indiewire, 11 June 2009. Web. 09
Sept. 2014.