September 2009 Archives

October is Black History Month in the UK. I’d bet most science teachers would struggle to name a single black scientist from history. Whilst it may be important to make students aware of the historical contributions of black scientists, I think it’s perhaps more important to make children aware of the work that black scientists are doing today, particularly in Africa.

The film below is one I made back in 2006. It is a portrait of the winner of the 2006 Royal Society Pfizer Award - for “an outstanding, innovative contribution to biological science, including basic medical science, which contributes significantly to capacity building in Africa”.

Lab Report: Dr Alexis Nzila - an African Scientist doing African Science from Alom Shaha on Vimeo.

The film was shot on location in Kenya and I worked closely with Alexis so that he could tell his own story, without the need for an external narrator. Apart from telling the story of an inspiring man, it also provides a useful look at “how science works” when it comes to developing drugs.

In the film, Alexis explains his work on developing anti-malaria drugs from existing cancer drugs - an approach which could bring cheap anti-malaria drugs to those who need them most. Alexis also talks about why he made the choice to work in Africa despite the many difficulties of doing science there.

Alexis believes firmly that “there will not be lasting solutions to malaria without a strong contribution from African scientists. Controlling malaria is not simply a matter of distributing bed nets and medication. It also requires planning and research so we can predict what the situation may be like in 5 or 10 years from now. To tackle malaria at a national level, governments need scientific evidence to make effective policy decisions. Without strong research groups, government programmes for malaria control cannot work”.

Alexis has every intention of staying in Africa and “building a team that does internationally recognised work”. However, it will take more than good intentions to ensure that Alexis and other talented African scientists remain in Africa; simply put, the biggest problem in doing science in Africa, like so many of the other problems in that troubled continent, is a lack of funding.

This is one for you if you’re feeling a little lazy. You could do this demo and explain the science yourself… or you can let Dr Andrea Sella of the UCL Chemistry Department explain why things appear “white”. Suitable for anyone teaching the electromagnetic spectrum or “properties of light” at KS3 or KS4. (Warning: the first few seconds of the video are deliberately meant to show a blank white screen).

This is one you really should do for yourself. The video is way too long, but I like the fact that he uses such a big can and it serves to illustrate one of the problems with this demo - you just don”t know when the thing is going to go…

There are some great science films out there which are well worth showing to your classes. Unfortunately there’s not enough time to show more than one or two such films during the school year, so it would be really useful to have more short films to give a bit of background and history to the topics we need to teach - a kind of video version of those boxes you get in text books, which tell you a little bit of history or provide some biographical detail of a scientist.

The film below is a brief documentary about the discovery of penicillin which does a pretty good job of telling this classic story from the history of science. Great alternative to getting students to read about it in a textbook.

Watch Penicillin at EncycloMedia.com

Here’s another video that might come in useful when teaching about acids and alkalis - Rosie Coates shows us her favourite chemistry demonstration involving a giant test-tube and some universal indicator solution. As well as showing us a fantastic demo, Rosie explains how the science of acids and alkalis can have important real-world applications.

This is another video where it’s really worth hitting the “HQ” button on the youtube player after you’ve hit “play”.

A brief summary of the Dolly story, including an explanation of the science. The voiceover is a little annoying and it might be a little too brief, but definitely useful for teaching about cloning if the only other resource you have is a textbook.

Watch Dolly the Sheep at EncycloMedia.com

I’ve been hunting for a good short film about the big bang but have yet to find one. I was hoping this film might be the one, but it doesn’t quite do the job as it doesn’t go into enough detail for me. However, it does (very briefly) explain some of the more interesting ideas Physicists have about the universe. It’s a good one to use for discussing the “true” nature of the universe…and the fact that nobody really knows.

In case you’re interested, the scientist in the film is Janna Levin, Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Columbia University, and author of How the Universe Got Its Spots, a book which combines a personal narrative / biography with science in a way that might appeal to your sixth formers.

You can download a version of this from vimeo

This short film, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, features a stunning animation that should be useful for teaching evolution at KS4. You’ll still need to show your students a diagram of the Tree of Life at some point, but this film does a great job of bringing such diagrams to life.

You can download a high definition version of the film at the Wellcome Trust’s dedicated “Tree of Life” website where you’ll also find a bunch of other resources to help teach evolution, including worksheets and the transcript of the video.

I hope to be filming some science demonstration videos over the next few months and I’d like to hear from teachers who would like to have a high quality video of a particular demonstration.

My own opinion is that you should, where possible, do demonstrations live in your classrooms. However, there are some demos that are too difficult / expensive / time consuming to do which would be really useful to show students. Also, there are some great demonstrations done by live science performers which might be useful to have on video.

Other demonstrations which I think might be useful to film are those which you do in class but which you’d like to see in slow motion or in extreme close-up. There are also demonstrations which you do in class but which you’d like to show again without having to set the thing up again.

So, if you’ve got a demo you’d like to have on video, please leave a comment here or get in touch with me directly.

I love teaching about acids and alkalis at KS3 because there’s quite a bit of fun practical work you can do - making an indicator out of red cabbage is an activity that Year 7 always seem to love. The textbook way of starting this topic is to talk about about acids and alkalis around the house… but this might be far more dramatic / interesting way to introduce the subject:

The clip is from Smalltalk Diaries, a series of ten short shows about the lives of minibeasts.