Handouts are available at the end of this post.

Video Transcript

Hi Science Teachers,

Welcome to Science Teacher Summer School, Episode 4.

I’m Kent Lui, and something you may not know about me is that I can solve the Rubik’s cube in roughly 2 minutes. It took me about 3 months to practice the algorithms needed to do it, but i think getting my time below one minute is really going to be a challenge. Now, let’s get to work.

What science videos do you show in class? We all show some in class. And, with YouTube, there’s a lot out there: professionally made videos by media companies like National Geographic or Wired Magazine; videos by so-called science communicators like Smarter Every Day, Veritasium and PhysicsGirl; and, videos by teachers like Bozeman science, amoeba sisters and khan academy.

This past year, I became more aware and selective of the videos I was showing in class because instructional time within the classroom became more precious due to pandemic restrictions. No longer did I want to show videos that just repeated what I had mentioned in class or was just entertaining or funny. I wondered if my videos and their complementary activities were a good use of time and really furthered student learning.

So, I asked, what activities and videos would help my students be better science thinkers and doers?

The solution: first, provide ways that allow students to process and connect with the video, and two, show the right type of video. Let’s start with a couple of strategies that allow students to connect with the videos – I provide a couple of open ended ways. The first way comes from my days being a teacher on call and subbing for a Vancouver teacher – shout out to Christopher Rozitis – for showing me this:

I have students draw a T-chart on a sheet of paper and they write “What I know” on one side and “What I learned” on the other. I ask students to take notes while they’re watching the video – they can take notes on anything that is mentioned in the video on either side of the chart. I’ll ask students to write 10 points or 12 points or 15 – depending on how long the video is. And, these are cumulative points – it can be 5 and 5 or 7 and 3. After the video, I’ll collect the notes and mark them.

A second strategy I give my students to connect with and process a science is a set of 3 questions:

1. What I just saw makes me think about this other thing I learned in another class because…
2. What I just saw makes me think about the time….because…
3. What I just saw makes me think about the future because…

After a video, I’ll provide 5-10 minutes for students to write responses to these questions. Then, we go around the classroom and share and discuss. The discussion is what’s important.

Both these strategies I use with almost all my videos. They’re easy and personable. And, they work in getting kids to connect.

Now, let’s take a moment to talk about the type of science video to show. I like to show more issue-driven science videos and fewer videos that are content- or phenomenon- driven.

Content-driven videos are explainer videos like the ones produced by khan academy. They contain a lot of information, but I don’t like to show them too often in class because I go over many of the concepts in class already. However, if there’s something a video shows that I can’t show in class, then, of course, I’ll show a content-video.

Phenomenon-driven videos are cool demos and builds that people show on Youtube like the ones done by Mark Rober and Veritasium. These are cool to watch, and a lot of kids are hooked to these videos. They’re great at getting students interested in science and engineering, but I don’t show them too often because they often don’t connect with the content. Plus, my perspective on videos have changed. When I first started, I wanted to show how science was cool with explosions and stuff. Now, I want to show science serving a larger purpose and solving larger problems.

Issue-driven videos highlight how science is used to solve a global issue. For example, Business Insider has a mini-series called World Wide Waste, where they highlight interesting solutions to our waste problems – like using microbes to extract precious metals from our computer chips and using coffins made of mushrooms to make our burials more environmentally friendly. These videos take content and apply it to a social issue. That’s the science I like to highlight.

That’s all the time we have for this episode. Please write your questions in the comments section below. Join me next time, when I’ll be talking about how I run engineering/inquiry projects so that students actually learn by doing. You don’t want to miss it.

See you again soon. And, remember to science everywhere everyday.

Resources

Handout(s): REAL SC – Activities for Videos

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