About the site

Axon is a Science website aimed at learners working towards the Third and Fourth Levels of Curriculum for Excellence. The site consists of Science-based missions and a 6-episode (90 min) Gaelic drama:

The learning is delivered via story telling in a 'real world' context which reaches outside the classroom and across traditional subject boundaries.

The Axon team are a freelance investigation agency of concerned scientists. Axon has been called upon to provide scientific explanations for two unexplained events:

Mission 1. Why the bulk carrier MV Monrovia sank.

Mission 2. Whether the body found in Cors Las is that of Saint Seiriol, a Welsh saint who lived in the area 1,500 years ago.

As the missions unfold, the Axon team and agents send the learner messages, videos, interactive experiments and activities. These are delivered over time via the Feedreader, the menu-like mechanism to the left of the screen.

The Feedreader enables the learner to explore what interests them and discover the facts at their own pace. The Axon characters provide guidance and direction throughout as part of the mission story. During a mission, Axon asks the learner to report back on their findings and will give feedback and further direction.

There is no right or wrong path through the material and the individual activities are not marked or graded. Instead, learners are able to assess their own results and findings in the context of the story as a whole. The Mission reports have been specifically designed to enable and encourage this. Feedback on the reports is given in the context of the story by Axon characters, usually the Chief Scientist and Sam, the boss.

Saving Progress
Users can save their progress through the site by creating a username when prompted. The work will only be saved on the computer being used at the time and it will only be possible to load the work on that particular machine in the future.

Audio and Visual Help
Users can click the Roghainnean button to:

• display captions for audio and video content
• change text and background colours
• hear on-screen text being read out.

Axon Drama

The 6-episode, 90 min Axon drama follows the story of Axon founder, eighteen-year-old Sam Deane, Sam's friend Mac, Chief Scientist Owen and their investigations into the sudden disappearance of the MV Monrovia and the mysterious Sir Philip Carter. Carter is Chairman of the controversial Corp International, a business once co-owned by Sam's father, Spencer Deane, prior to his disappearance seventeen years ago.

The drama can be used as a stand-alone resource in addition to serving as a detailed explanation of the full Axon story.

Language: Gaelic with optional Gaelic subtitles. To display the subtitles, click on the 'ABC' button below the video.

The Programmes
Click on the links below to watch the Axon drama.

1. An Litir (The Letter)

2. Am Buncair (The Bunker)

3. Am Monrovia (The Monrovia)

4. An Nàmhaid (The Enemy)

5. A' Helics (The Helix)

6. Am Buachaille (The Shepherd)

Feedreader

The Feedreader is the menu-like mechanism which sits on the left of the screen and delivers messages and information needed to complete a mission.

Messages
The buttons highlight when a new or unread message appears and the number of new messages is shown in brackets. To look at a message, select the feed and then select the message title in the sub-menu.

Message content
Messages can be video clips, emails and interactive documents, learning activities, experiments and reports. The icon to the right of the message title indicates the type of message.

The newest messages always appear at the top. Older messages remain below and can be re-visited.

Help
Select the question mark icon at the bottom of the feedreader for on-screen help.

About Mission 1: Training

Learners undertaking the Training Mission progressively unlock the Axon story and qualify as Axon agents on completion of the Explosions and Waves activities.

Explosions is an activity which touches on chemical reactions, corrosion, changes of state and energy transfer and acids. The learner watches animations showing the potential for explosive reactions on board a bulk carrier. The learner must evaluate what they have seen to determine whether or not an explosion of the material on board has caused the ship to sink. The science learning is contextualised by being delivered as part of an interactive story in which the learner has to solve mysteries using science.

Waves is an activity which engages the learner in an exploration of the ocean's kinetic energy and its transfer when a wave comes into contact with a ship. This provides an opportunity to cover other areas of energy transfer and storage, in particular wave power as a sustainable resource.

The wave simulator allows the learner to determine whether or not a wave could have had enough energy and exerted enough pressure to sink the bulk carrier MV Monrovia.

About Mission 2: Bog Body

The Bog Body mission reveals more of the Axon story and introduces 5 Science-based activities through the investigation of a peat bog and the preserved body found there.

Mun bhoglaich (About the bog)
In this activity the learner accesses information about the geography, geology, chemistry and biology of an acidic peat bog in order to gather the clues that they think are most relevant to the preservation of organic matter. It presents cross-disciplinary opportunities in that it not only allows for focus on the unique peat land ecosystem but also the huge impact humans have had on this environment historically and to the present day. The interaction is simple and intuitive to maintain the focus on active immersion and learning.

Mun chorp (About the body)
About the body is an investigation into the body which has been found preserved in a bog. It encourages the learner to look closely at all of the details to extract clues which could give them answers as to who this person was: examining pictures of the body for clues about the person's life and death, looking at the teeth to determine how old they were and when they died and measuring their limbs to find out how tall they were. About the body presents cross-curricular opportunities, looking at evidence of how the person lived and who they were biologically and placing this in a possible historical context.

Casg an lobhaidh (Stop the rot)
Stop the rot explores how various conditions can affect decomposition. The user must explore how different levels of water, pH, oxygen and temperature can affect the rate at which a body decomposes. The aim is to find the conditions in which a body can be preserved, and conclude how long the body found in the bog could have been there.

Deuchainnean air meatailtean (Metal tests)
Some metal objects have been found with the body in the Cors Las peat bog. Finding out when they were made could reveal how old the body is. Metal objects known to be from the Iron Age were found some years back in another bog close to where the body was found. Test both sets of objects in acid solutions to reveal their composition and compare the results. This activity provides cross-curricular opportunities including looking at the history of metal extraction and why metal composition can provide such important information for archaeologists.

Duilleagan agus poilean (Leaves and pollen)
Leaves and Pollen is a plant classification and identification activity. Using two simple tools the learner is able to find out which plants have been found in the bog. The activity provides an opportunity to introduce peat lands as an invaluable historical record. Preserved matter in peat provides a record of climate, weather patterns, vegetation patterns and much more over time. This activity also provides cross-curricular opportunities to look at the roles of plants historically. In this instance, the identity of the plants will become a clue in solving the mystery as to the origins of the body found in the bog.