Recently in Free Science Videos Category

I’ve recently been marking GCSE “case studies” - coursework where students get to “research a science related question” e.g., Should we use more nuclear power? Are humans responsible for global warming?

A friend of mine told me about a really good case study by a student of hers entitled “Does the MMR vaccine cause autism?” It started with the statement “I am interested in this topic because my father decided against having me vaccinated when I was a child.”

After looking at a variety of sources of information, the student concluded that there was not really any scientific evidence to link the MMR vaccine to autism. However, she also stated that the side effects of vaccines were a good reason to avoid vaccinating your children. I found this depressing - vaccines and vaccination are one of science’s greatest achievements and I was saddened that this bright, capable student had failed to acknowledge this.

I wish she’d watched this film:

Here’s Dr Michael de Podesta of the National Physical Laboratory on the science of mobile phones. A video of a lecture, which is unsuitable for showing in class in its entirety, but invaluable for non-specialists teaching Physics at KS4 and for us specialists who could do with refreshing our own knowledge. You could also borrow some of his ideas for presenting in your own lessons. This video would also be an excellent resource for students looking at mobile phone safety for their GCSE Science case study.

Are mobile phones safe? Dr. Michael de Podesta From: Mobile phone safety 2010-01-28 12:00:00.0 Communications Channel >> go to webcast>> recommend to friend

This is a fantastic clip from an American version of “Dragon’s Den” which I think would make an excellent starting point for a discussion on “how science works”. It’s so good it could have been made for this very purpose:

Some obvious questions to get the discussion going:

Are the Dragons right or are they just being rude by refusing to allow the guy to show them more of his “research”? (He claims to have lots more he can show them)

What, if anything, is wrong with the salesman’s research?

The salesman claims he has video testimony of people who have been cured by his medicine - would that be enough to convince you of its efficacy? If not, why not?

Why do you think the “Dragons” reacted so violently against this man?

“How Science Works” is now a major part of the national curriculum in England and Wales. Its introduction was controversial and its implementation has, as I wrote recently, gone awry. Despite my concerns about the problems of teaching and assessing HSW as suggested by certain GCSE course, I believe it is a crucial part of the science curriculum and deserves to be taught well. I think this film might help you do just that:

Sorry for the awful title to this post - but I have been inspired by “John Travoltage”, the most fun Physics interactive I have ever encountered. I should warn you - you may lose hours of your life to this joyful game.

On a more serious note, this website has a whole bunch of “Fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena from the PhET project at the University of Colorado”. And the best thing? They’re all FREE.

Watching sodium being put into water is one of the few things that everyone seems to remember from school science lessons. I would encourage all science teachers do do as much as they can “for real” when it comes to teaching the “reactivity of metals”. If for some reason, there are some experiments you can’t do in school, there are some videos from the Royal Society of Chemistry that you might find useful. There are also a wealth of such videos on youtube, if you are prepared to spend the time looking for them (although, as in the example below, the voiceovers are likely to be so amusing to your students that you might be better off switching off the sound and explaining the science yourself)

This link came through on one of the physics teaching mailing lists I’m subscribed to (thank you, Helen Reynolds - your description of it is perfect). It’s a chromoscope that provides “a nice way to display images at different wavelengths by allowing you to fade between them”. Take a look and I’m sure you’ll find a way to incorporate it into a lesson on the EM spectrum or even when teaching “Space” to Year 7.

Here’s a great free resource that allows students to practice data collection and other aspects of experimental science without the hassle of actually doing the experiment. Before you start screaming about how it’s important to do these things for real, this is what the makers of this resource say: “Virtual Experiments are not intended to replace the real hands-on laboratory - science students need to develop the skills of setting up, alignment and adjustment with real equipment - but they can offer huge added value as warm-ups to the real thing, or when equipment is scarce, dangerous or expensive. They also offer simultaneous whole-class access 24/7, they can be repeated as often as you like, and you can’t break them”.

“Conservation of Momentum” is one of those laws we ask our students to believe in. Sure, we try to demonstrate it using air tracks and stuff, but the numbers never really add up. This video shows space tourist Richard Garriott trying to demonstrate conservation of momentum aboard the ISS - it’s not entirely convincing, because there are no measurements / data, but it looks much more impressive than an air track and he adds a little explanation of how the law applies to the practicalities of life aboard the space station.

If anyone reading this has a spare few million quid, I would LOVE to go up to the ISS and make a few demo films…

Measurement is at the heart of science - a point that we could probably do with reiterating to our students on a regular basis. This video, by the appropriately named Marshall Brain, founder of howstuffworks.com, contains some great ideas for easy-to-do activities which should be ideal for Year 7 (or even KS2 students). I don’t recommend showing the video to your students - this is one of those videos that’s worth watching to get ideas to do “for real” in the classroom.