Nanomaterials in Consumer Products Research Paper

Nanomaterials in Consumer Products - Research Paper Example Before delving deep into the topic, it is crucial that the reader understands a few concepts in relation to nanomaterials. Nanotechnology, to begin with, refers to the control of the structure and behavior of matter at the atomic or molecular level. This is done so as to create new functions of the materials, systems, or devices from a bottom-up approach. The use of nanotechnology uses the concepts such as those that dictate the different behavior of matter at different sizes. For example, gold is yellow in color, however, the color changes in relation to the sizes of the plates as that determine their ability to reflect light. In nanotechnology, very small materials are used, smaller than 100nm in size (Roduner 503). For the sake of the paper, and for an elaboration of how small a nanometer is, it should be known that the particle is equal to 10 hydrogen atoms. A grain of sand, on the other hand, equals to a million nanometers. Materials equal to these sizes are known as nanomateria ls and are now being used in physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, engineering, and material science. Carbon exists in every form imaginable. The basic composition of glucose, for instance, is made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The air that plants use so that they can produce glucose or starch, also, has to contain carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. To add to that, carbon forms a critical part of fossil fuels. In fact, the fuels are known as hydrocarbons because they contain carbon as a basic component.  Ã‚  

Styles of love Essay Example for Free

Styles of love Essay The styles of love depicted in this essay are friendship and selfless love. Two scenarios depicting each style of love are presented. Friendship John and Lynda met each other in the office when Lynda joined the company where John worked. Both of them are the silent type of persons, simple and intelligent. They did not mix with the loud people in the company but rather, they grouped with simple, happy and low profile people just like them. Their frienship grew into a love relationship as they got to know each other more including their personal family backgrounds. They have many similar interests, were always happy together and they got married. Selfless love Joel is second eldest in a family of eight children. He did not finish college and was frequently tasked to take care of his younger siblings when their mother was away. Belle, on the other hand, is an architect and being the youngest in a brood of six, was pampered in the family. In their married life, Joel was able to take the tantrums of Belle. He was patient and was the one who always gave in such that any argument between them did not result into a bigger fight. As years went by, Belle became more in love with her husband whose forbearance complemented her frequently volatile temper. Joel always understood Belle and placed her interests on top of his priorities. Similarities and differences between the two scenarios Both scenarios have what it takes to achieve consummate love. For as long as the characters in the stories are able to maintain the balance of intimacy, passion and commitment, then consummate love can successfully be maintained. In the first scenario, John and Lynda share similar interests and have the same attitude and personality. In the second scenario, Joel and Belle do not have the same attitude and personality owing to their different family backgrounds. Belle even has a higher educational achievement than her husband but they are compatible in terms of being able to complement each other’s physical and emotional needs. Styles of love that have been prevalent in my life Romantic love between my partner and me and friendship (storge, philia) within the family and with close friends are the styles of love that have been most prevalent in my life. Reference Rathus, S. A. , Nevid, J. S. , Fichner-Rathus, L. (2005). Human sexuality in a world of diversity. Allyn and Bacon: copyright by Pearson Education, Inc.

Examining The Enzyme Amylase And Its Uses Science Essay

Examining The Enzyme Amylase And Its Uses Science Essay A catalyst is a substance used to speed up a particular reaction and remain unchanged at the end of the reaction. Reactions that are sped up by catalysts can range from making sure maximum ammonia is obtained in industries to making sure that every starch particle in our bodies has been broken down during digestion. Looking at enzymes, enzymes can be defined as biological catalysts they speed up metabolic reactions that are taking part in living organisms. Enzymes are protein in nature and are made up of globular proteins. This gives them a precise 3D shape that has hydrophilic R groups on the outside that make them soluble. Enzymes come from microorganisms, plants or animals. An enzymes features include an active site which is a depression in the enzyme to which a molecule (substrate) can bind and be broken down into two or more products. The shape of the active site is what determines what substrates can fit and substrates are required to fit perfectly in an enzyme for them to be b roken down. Therefore an enzyme will act on only one type of a specific substrate molecule. Enzymes also reduce the activation energy this is the initial amount of energy that is required to increase the rate of a particular reaction. The rate of a reaction of an enzyme depends on how many enzyme molecules there are, how many substrate molecules there are and the speed that the enzyme is able to convert this substrate into a product. However the rate of reactions of enzymes does not always run smoothly it is affected by: enzyme concentration, substrate concentration, pH, enzyme cofactors, temperature and enzyme inhibitors. Enzymes tend to denature when exposed to high temperature that is higher than 40à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ °C because of their protein nature they are then destroyed. They also work faster at a pH of around 7 that is a neutral pH with few exceptions. Eg. Enzymes in the stomach that work within the presence of hydrochloric acid (1,2) Introduction to enzymes in industriesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Enzymes play multiple roles in industries and many industries have now turned to enzyme technology. The advantage in using enzymes is that they can catalyse the different chemical reactions, they are specific so therefore they can give pure products, and they work efficiently. Such factors play leading roles in the pharmaceutical, food and agricultural industries. When using enzymes in industries microorganisms are preferably used as the source rather than plants or animal. This is because companies find that they can be grown economically in bulk fermenters controlled conditions, they can be genetically engineered relatively easily, and mutant varieties can relatively easily be produced to improve performance and their production rate can be altered to suit the demand. When several enzymes are required to be used in more than one reaction to made a product then the enzymes are isolated and the specific enzyme is chosen for the reaction. Pure enzymes can also be used and in some case s enzymes can be used as they are without having to purify them eg.fruit juice production and meat tenderization. Industries have also found another way of using enzymes that enables them to reduce the cost of the process and also be able to re-use the enzyme after that reaction. They do this by immobilizing the enzyme. This means that the enzyme gets strapped to a solid support then put in the reaction so therefore after the enzyme has broken down that reaction it can be retrieved from the mixture. Immobilizing an enzyme also makes it more stable as it disables the enzyme to denature as a result of pH or temperature changes. Such enzymes are mostly used in the process for making sweeteners in the USA and fruitdrinks in Japan. (1,2) AMYLASE This is a digestive enzyme that plays an important role in our bodies and also in the food industry, textile and pharmaceutical industry. Amylase comes in different forms that are determined by the way in which their glycosidic bonds are attached. There is the Alpha-amylase, Beta-amylases and Gluco-amylases these include gamma-amylases and amyloglucosidases . (3,7) Below are the primary-quaternary structures of amylase. Primary Structure Secondary Structure Quatenary Structure Tertiary Structure The enzyme amylase is mainly used as a digestive enzyme. The reaction that is being broken down in the presence of amylase is the breaking down of long chain carbohydrates (polysaccharides such as starch) into disaccharides (maltose) and then monosaccharides (glucose). (3,5,6) In industries amylase is used in the following ways: In brewing and fermentation the amylase that is present in wheat breakdown the starch into fermentable sugars. They catalyze maize or potato starch to syrups in numerous reactions to syrups that contain sugars that can then be used in making sweets, or ice cream. In baked goods they pre-digest the starch that increases the performance of yeast and increases the yield of the product. In textile industry they are used to breakdown starched clothes for them to be dyed after the starch has been used as a stiffening agent to design the cotton fibres. In washing and cleaning, amylase is used to dissolve starch stains. For sizing of paper. to increase diastase in flour. Used in babyfoods. Amylase also takes out starch during jelly production. In fruit juices they remove the lees that has starch. (3,7,4) The sources of amylase is animals, plants, and microorganisms. In animals amylase is made in the salivary glands and pancreas. In plants amylase can be found in barley malt and in microorganisms they are found in the fungus Aspergillus oryzae. (1) Amylase can be produced by fungul and bacterial cultures. Of these 2 a bacterial culture shows more of an advantage as they display stability in temperature than amylase from fungul cultures. In the bacterial culture the amylase is produced by genetically modified microorganisms these are different types of bacillus. The amylase that is produced by fungul cultures are not genetically modified but once when they were genetically modified Trichoderma was used. (7) A cofactor is a substance that must be attached to the active site before a substrate can be able to bind and enable the enzyme to work properly. These come in the form of an ion or a molecule. The cofactor of amylase is calcium ions (1,6,) An inhibitor is another molecule (other than a substrate) that is very similar to a substrate that takes over the active site and therefore reduces the rate of activity of that enzyme. Inhibitors can be classified as competitive inhibitors and non-competitive inhibitors. The competitive inhibitors are the ones that temporarily bind the active site but can be reversed and overcome by increasing the concentration of the substrate whereas the non-competitive inhibitors are permanent and they destroy the catalytic activity of the enzyme. An inhibitor of amylase is phaseolamin. (1,6,4) The problem with using amylase is that when used in the brewery industry when boiling wort enzyme gets denatured by the boiling and breaking down starch to dextrins by fermentable sugars does not happen. When amylase mixed with other enzymes is used to overcome indigestion it may cause drowsiness, dizziness, blurred vision or lightheadedness.

Ephedra (Ma Huang) :: Botany

Ephedra (Ma Huang) Ephedras species are an evergreen shrub, native to North China and Inner Mongolia. It's yellow/green branching shrub growing to an average of 20 inches (50cm) with long narrow, sprawling stems and tiny leaves, can be found in desert or arid regions throughout the world. Its color can be green, gray, or red, depending on the species. The plant has small greenish yellow flowers and tiny nodes (joints) on the stalks (2). Ephedra is propagated from seed or by root division in autumn and demands well drained soil. It usually grows on dry, rocky or sandy slopes, and loves full sun. It matures very slowly and is very challenging to grow (1). General Information Ephedra (common name) comes from the family Ephedraceae. It has several scientific names that depend upon the plants founding location; Ephedra major (American), Ephedra trifurca (American), Ephedra nevadensis (American) are found in North America; and Ephedra sinica (Chinese- Ma Huang) is found in Asia. Other varieties of Ephedra can be found in Europe, India, and Pakistan. Ephedra was initially found in a Neolithic grave in the Middle East. This evidence may indicate that Ephedra was used as a medicine more than 60,000 year ago. In China, Ephedra was the first herbal remedy to yield an active constituent, in this case ephedrine. The first isolation of ephedrine was in 1887, by a Japanese chemist, N. Nagai (2,5). Folk and Historic Traditions The Zen Monks used Ephedra to encourage calm concentration during meditation. According to a legend, a tea containing Ephedra was given to the bodyguards of Genguis Khan, to keep them from falling asleep on sentry duty. Mormon Tea, one of Ephedra's folk names, stems from the use of the tea by Mormons; it was used as a replacement stimulant for the coffee and black tea the Mormons couldn't drink. In the 1800's Ephedra tea was served in Brothels, claiming to cure gonorrhea and syphilis. Ephedra tea today is not used as a cure; it will not cure these STD's (2). Medicinal Values The Medicinal use of Ephedra in China dates from approximately 2800B.C. In 1923 the practitioners of Western Medicine began their interest in Ephedra. Soon after, ephedrine became widely used as a nasal decongestant, a central nervous system stimulant, and a treatment for asthma in America. The isolated alkaloid originally obtained from Ephedra species, have been used in a substantial amount of prescription drugs and over-the-counter decongestants and allergy medications (2,4).

Kfc Essay Essay

It has grown enormously following its fragile birth, splashing in scintillating numbers in both franchisees and company owned stores all over. The company’s prime strength lies in providing high-quality chicken meals to its huge consumer base all over the world. Now every day, more than 12 million customers are served at KFC restaurants in 109 countries and territories around the world. KFC operates more than 5,200 restaurants in the United States and more than 15,000 units around the world. The company has strong product identification through its branding, advertising as well as packaging signifies the company in various manner. The famous paper bucket that KFC uses for its larger sized orders of chicken, its logos and the famous picture of Harland Sanders, the initial founder, all represent KFC in the most colorful way. KFC’s specialty is fried chicken served in various forms. However the recipe of 11 herbs and spices used by KFC in preparation of their chicken still remains a trade secret. KFC’s primary product is pressure-fried pieces of chicken made with the original recipe. The other chicken offering, extra crispy, is made using a garlic marinade and double dipping the chicken in flour before deep frying in a standard industrial kitchen type machine. Despite KFC’s success as a company, the fast food organization had faced many problems over the years. There were mostly environmental issues that had influenced their product marketing and in time they had inherited new ways and different techniques to cater their fast food products. Animal Cruelty Since 2003, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), have been protesting KFC’s treatment of the animals used for its products with the Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign. PETA states that they have held more than 12,000 demonstrations at KFC outlets since 2003 because of alleged mistreatment of chickens by KFC suppliers. Alleged rainforest destruction In May 2012, Greenpeace accused KFC of sourcing paper pulp for its food packaging from Indonesian rainforest wood. Independent forensic tests showed that some packaging contained more than 50 per cent mixed tropical hardwood fibre, sourced from Asia Pulp & Paper Macro environment KFC operates in a larger macro environment of forces that creates opportunities, but also threats. A company such as KFC usually cannot influence trends in the macro environment, as they affect people and organisations on a larger scale. However, KFC has to carefully examine macro environmental trends and must create competitive responses to such trends. There are six major macro environmental forces KFC has to take into account. Micro environment The microenvironment consists of all forces that are close to KFC, and on which KFC has an impact. They directly affect KFC’s ability to serve its customers. Three major components influence KFC’s microenvironment: COMPETITORS Because the fast food market is highly competitive, KFC faces a wide number of direct and indirect competitors. KFC’s main competitors are fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Domino’s, which are already well established throughout the world. McDonalds’s in particular is a direct competitor, as they have already successfully introduced their Salads plus line, which directly targets ‘healthy food’ conscious world we live in. But, there are a number of other competitors that is also focusing on ‘chicken’ types products. All this competition makes it quite difficult for KFC to maintain or even broaden their customer base. However, with the introduction of a new and healthy product range, KFC can differentiate itself from most competitors and will gain a competitive advantage. CUSTOMERS KFC’s customer market consists solely of the consumer market. KFC’s products are bought by individuals (males, females, singles, and families). Therefore, the product range KFC offer should appeal to as many people within this consumer market as possible, to ensure that the maximum amount of products can be sold. The characteristics of these individuals and a segmentation of them are discussed later in this report. Strengths and weakness of competitors Strengths: 38 products, Attractive Outlets, Huge Marketing, Budget, More entertainment for kids Weaknesses: Same type of Menu, No Home Delivery How they compete with their competitors? It is found that KFC compete its competitors by five ways: †¢KFC compete its competitors through marketing strategy †¢They offered different packages at different events like Ramadan offer, midnight offer etc. †¢KFC compete their competitors by providing good services They must hired the hard selling persons to market their product in the market and motivate their employees for the sake of organizations and employees do well and they compete there competitors KFC has quality products and through these quality products they compete their competitors Current Sales Analysis Market Share Market Share KFC has a very long history and has the most recogni ze able brand in chicken with over 50% of the market share. It becomes difficult for the companies like Sub way, Mc Donald’s, Chicken planet, Dixie or those who may want to enter in the market of fast food restaurants. Due to with over 50% of the market share in fast food industry KFC has recognition around the world and has been globally positioned for many years in and to capture the market share in adopting a chicken loving experience. Environmental factors and opportunities Political: The operations of KFC are affected by the government policies on the regulations of fast food operation. Currently government are controlling the marketing of fast food restaurant because of health concern such as cardiovascular and cholesterol issue and obesity among the young and children in the country. Governments also control the license given for open the fast food restaurant and other business regulation need to follow such as for a franchise business. Good relationship with government in giving mutual benefits such as employment and tax is a must for the company to succeed in any foreign market. Economic: Though for last 1 year there was economic slowdown all across the globe but the sales of KFC and other fast food chains did not slow down to that extent that of other sectors in. The GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) is estimated at2. 965 trillion U. S. dollars in the year 2010. The GDP- per Capita (PPP) was 2700 U. S. dollars as estimated in 2008. The GDP- real growth rate in 2007was 8. 7%. India has the third highest GDP in terms of purchasing power parity just ahead Japan and behind U. S. and China. Foreign direct investment rose in the fiscal year ended March 31 2007 to about $16 billion from just $5. 5 billion a year earlier. Socio cultural: India is the second most populous nation in the world with an approximate population of over 1. 1billion people. This population is divided in the following age structure: 0-14 years – 31. 8%, 15-64 years – 63. % and 65years and above – 5. 1%. There has also been a continuous increase in the consumption of fast food in India. The social trend toward fast good consumption is changing and India has seen an increase of 90% fast food consumption from the year 2002-2007. This increase is far greater than the increase in the BRIC nations of Brazil (20 per cent), Russia (50 per cent) and China (almost 60 per cent). Thus this shows a positive trend for fast food industries in India. Technological: The fast food Industry is heating up with a lot of foreign players entering the market. The technological knowhow and expertise will also enter the market with an increase in competition. With the lower rates and increase technology the fast food counters are attracting youth by giving them attractive deals. For e. g. KFC and Domino’s pizza. For a fast food restaurant, technology does not give a very high impact on the company and it is not a significant macro environment variables. However KFC should be looking to competitors innovation and improve itself in term of integrating technology in managing its operation. For example in inventory system, supply chain management system to manage its supply, easy payment and ordering systems for its customers and wireless internet technology. Implementation of technology can make the management more effective and cost saving in the long term. This will also make customer happy if cost savings results in price reduction or promotional campaign discount which will benefits them from time to time. Environmental: As one of world largest consumer of beef, potatoes and chicken, KFC always had been critics for world environmentalist. This is because high consumption of beef causing the green house effect by methane gasses coming from the cow’s ranch. Large-scale plantation has effect the environment and lost of green forest opening for plantation activities. Vegetarian environmentalist criticizes the fast-food giant for cruelty to animals and slaughtering. In America, once KFC want to introduce whale burger causing uproar because whales are endangered species. Before using paper packaging, KFC once had been criticized for being insensitive to pollution because of using ne based packaging for its food products. Imagine millions of people purchase from fast food operator and how is the impact to world environment by throwing away those hard to recycle packaging. Our world is getting concern on environment issue and business operating here should not just care for profit, but careful usage of world resources for sustainable development and care for environment safety and health for our future generation. Critics and concern from all public or activist should bare view and support if necessary to ensure we play our social responsibility better. Legal factors: As a certified fast food operator, there are many regulations and procedures that KFC should follow. For example is the Halal certification that becomes a concern to Muslim consumers. KFC should protect its integrity and consumer confidence by ensuring all materials and process are as claimed or must followed. Other legal requirement that the business owner should follow as stipulated in laws are such as operating hours, business registration, tax requirement, labor and employment laws and quality & environment certification (such as ISO) in which the outlet has been certified. The legal requirement is important because the offenders will be fined or have their business prohibited from operating which can be disastrous. KFC India -BCG Matrix Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) Matrix Currently KFC have launched a new product in the market. They have also tried to come into the beverages market by launching its new brand of shakes called KRUSHERS. As it is a fairly new product it comes in the category of the Question Mark in the BCG Matrix. It has a low market share thus brings low revenue. KFC is advertising a lot to popularize this product so there is a lot of expenditure on it. This product is individually not bringing any profits and is a cash drain for the company. Company may decide to completely remove this product from the market if it does not do well soon and start bringing in revenue. Business macro-environmental factors The company and all the other actors operate in a larger macro-environment of forces, including political, economic, cultural, technological, legal and ecological factors, which shape opportunities and pose threats to the company. Political and legal regulatory affect the strategic development of KFC Corporation, which made the US market more challenging. Example- Forbidding the use of trans-fat cooking oil mandating calorie counts on menus,removing advertisement from kid’s programme, and even prohibiting from making unconfirmed claims concerning nutritional value and losing weight benefits. All of these may seriously impede the free flow of goods within a group and from suppliers and consumer demand. According to the Institute for the World Economy, the aggregation of financial crisis continues to result in negative result to the world economy and generate a strong downturn in the entire restaurant industry, which leads to the falling of US unit expansion from 3. % of 2006 to 2. 4% of 2007. On the other hand, fewer costs as compared with healthier food helped KFC and the entire fast food industry to grow rapidly. Moreover, KFC can increase profit margins with chicken which is lower in cost compared to other meat. With the ever-increasing impact of health consciousness, like obesity, among consumers, it’s increasingly ha rd for KFC to keep its original product mix and alternatively prompt them to offer healthier foods (threat). In contrast, under the slump chicken consumption in Europe and Asia market owing to the outbreak of avian flu, US market still shows an image of rising. Furthermore, hurried and changing lifestyle of people along with convenient and tasty characters of foods, which offered numerous business opportunities for KFC Corporation. The innovation in technology offers further development possibilities to fast food industry. However, owing to equipment problems, KFC lost its Rotisserie Chicken market which had achieved a huge success in non-fried chicken area. Restaurants are known to have very high levels of energy intensity due to their relatively small building size and the amount of cooking, heating, and refrigeration needed to prepare and serve food to customers. Due to these high levels of energy use, we continue to focus our efforts on reducing our energy intensity in both new and existing restaurants. In 2006 KFC established a goal to reduce energy usage in the U. S. company-owned restaurants by 12 percent from 2005 levels by the end of 2009. They achieved a 14% reduction through the application of numerous energy conservation measures (ECMs). In addition to reducing energy consumption, these ECMs resulted in the elimination of over 117,000 metric tons of CO2 per year from the atmosphere. The KFC China division has also recognized the need to focus on energy conservation and has become actively involved in implementing ECMs over the past few years. Their efforts have resulted in the elimination of over 5300 metric tons of CO2 per year. Greenpeace, a conservational and environmental organization in 46 countries, has accused Cargill concerning the illegal exportation of soya to KFC for its chicken food supplied. Changing consumers’ perception about KFC is arisen among analyst and specialist and forthright. In respect to the accusations has actively retrofit existing restaurants with more efficient lighting systems. During 2009, 190 restaurants in China had their interior linear fluorescent lamps upgraded to a more efficient version resulting in a reduction of over 600 metric tons of CO2 per year. Heating, Ventilation ;amp; Air Conditioning (HVAC): In 2006, Yum! made the commitment to standardize high efficiency air conditioning systems for all U. S. restaurants. Since then, over 1800 high-efficiency air conditioning units have been installed with slightly over 600 taking place in 2008 and 2009. These 600 + installations have reduced our CO2 output by 10,500 metric tons per year. In China, the engineering team developed the means to overcome water hardness issues compromising the efficiency of certain heating devices used in our KFC kitchens. Their solution enabled the equipment to operate at peak efficiency which eliminated over 4200 metric tons of CO2 per year. In conclusion, KFC had used all its macro environment factors efficiently; it had improved its product in terms of packaging technology, its cooking methods and most important heath wise keeping in mind the external affect on the environment.

Concept cartoons Essay Example

Concept cartoons Essay Example Concept cartoons Essay Concept cartoons Essay The children take it in turns to hold the torch and be the earth. During this activity they continued to discuss amongst themselves, they chatted about what time they were representing, morning, dinnertime and evening (appendix 3). They then turned the globe around and pretended to live in different parts of the world, deciding who was awake and who was asleep, I was still at the display listening just in case further explanation or intervention was needed. Exploring further using the mobile the children were able to consider the distance between the earth, sun and moon. Discussion with them led to mathematical equations to work out how we could show these using children in the playground area. The children took from the display the objects that represented Earth, Sun and Moon and went onto the playground, further questioning was used in this area to recognise the movement of the Earth, Sun and Moon as well as the relative distances. The children were able to convert the measurements into metres and kilometres in order to show this in the playground. Most of the children did not realize the huge distance between the Sun and Earth. Adults were able to discuss ways of testing. An example of looking at aeroplanes in the sky, the size they look when they are flying compared to when they are on the ground. Again the children tried to represent this on the playground, this was difficult but the children were able then to make the connection regarding size and distance. This particular group of children are mainly from the able ability group, the lower ability also observed what was happening but had no input during the discussion. Using the Concept cartoons I targeted the lower ability group to see what their knowledge of how a day is recognised during the next session. Concept Cartoon 14.1 24 Hours page 173 Appendix 2  Help was given with reading, the children circled the appropriate answer correctly The Earth spins once every 24 hours which then led into a questioning session to confirm that this was not a guess.  A So can you give me any ideas as to how we know this?  C Is that why when we wake up it is light and when we go to be it is dark cause weve turned round and now its daytime it must be bedtime in Australia and other countries at the other side of the world C Yeh and 24 hours means 1 day  A Excellent, that is right, Lets go and have a look on the computer and see if we can find anything to help us see what happens in 24 hours to earth  We were then able to access the NASA website www.nasaforkids.com  where we could explore the movement of earth. The children could also explore how a year is formed through this and other sites, through talking to them whilst on the computer, they showed that they had no idea about this. With help the children used some of the information they gathered off the computer and information from adults to write a short paragraph to put on the display for the rest of the class (appendix 4) The group were able to print off some quizzes to look at, which were than used on the display. Following this activity using the idea of concept cartoons a range of card games were created using ideas found during recent readings  It is through the ensuing discussion and argument that learning occurs and cognitive changes will be made.  Primary Science Review 72 (page 6)  March/April 2002 Bob Kibble These cards were put into the ICT suite, the children were then encouraged to play the game in pairs, then look on the internet to see who or if they were correct. The children were then encouraged to write a short paragraph on the computer to put along side the cards to explain which were correct. A great deal of discussion was held in the ICT suite at this point, although the more able group went on to looking at the position of the rest of the solar system and seasons, the lower ability group continued their investigation into day and night, the year and shadows. By way of assessment the children were continually challenged to explain their answers put onto the display. A Can you tell me which sphere represents the earth?  C The pea  A How did you know that?   C Well the beach ball must be the sun because its the biggest, and I think the bead must be the bean cause its not as small as earth. A Yes, youre quite right, well done  A sundial brought into school proved a successful tool to use to help with the concept of time passing and the creation of shadows. The children were able to use this over the period of a week to record information and show it in the form of a graph. In conclusion the display was a great success, both at the onset of the unit and continually throughout, the teacher was able to make good use of it throughout lessons and the children had access to it constantly. Although all the displays in the class are thoroughly planned and used as a point of reference and for displaying childrens work it was clear that due to the knowledge I was trying to gain from it that we used it a lot more. The class teacher was pleased with the out come, particularly by the lower ability group as they participated in a lot of the activitys even though they were very unsure about the concepts been challenged. The notion that display within the classroom can support young childrens learning is the aspect that is least recognised. Stimulation and motivation are starting points for learning, but display can provide support once children have embarked upon their work. requires though and consideration about how good display contributes to effective learning rather than simply making the room look nice.  Reading for reflective teaching in the primary school (p 201) This quote was of most relevance to the project given and would appear to be a true statement. Although this unit only begins to look at the solar system, a good deal of children wanted to explore further, which they were encouraged to do. The range of questions was broad and the answers were sometimes difficult to comprehend for the children without the use of representative equipment. A good subject knowledge was of up most importance to be able to answer the childrens questions appropriately, the need to explore thoroughly the subjects taught is a necessity which can be difficult, but enlightening at the same time!