When my daughter was in third grade, I dropped into her classroom to help with an activity. The teacher at the time was teaching a science lesson on states of matter. Given that states of matter are in the curriculum that I am responsible for teaching to my sixth grade science students, I was super interested in watching the lesson.
Photo by Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash
It was a complete disaster.
Her teacher really didn’t understand the science behind the concepts she was teaching and she shared several facts with students that were just plain inaccurate. The kids had fun — they were doing a hands-on task with ice cream. But they are also going to move forward with several misconceptions about the science that they were supposed to learn.
My guess is that experience isn’t completely atypical in elementary and middle school science classrooms, where many teachers don’t have a background in the sciences.
Charged with teaching a subject that they don’t know a heckuva’ lot about, that they don’t get a heckuva’ lot of professional development in, and that no one pays a heckuva’ lot of attention to, teachers do their best — but “their best” may not be good enough.
I feel comfortable saying all of that, y’all, because I’m a middle school science teacher without a background in the sciences.
That means many of the concepts that I’m responsible for teaching to my students are often brand new to me, too. Take next year, for example: I’m heading to an eighth grade classroom for the first time in my 27 year career. That means I’m teaching kids about eutrophication and turbidity and wastewater treatment. We look at chemical bonding and valence electrons. We talk about extinctions and the Cenozoic Era. And we look at genetics and biotechnology.
If I took an exam on this content right now, I’d fail.
But I also feel comfortable saying that I will have no trouble learning all of this content over the next few months.
Here’s why: I’m an avid consumer of the content created by science communicators on YouTube. I’ve probably subscribed to 30 or 40 different science themed channels and I probably watch 3-4 videos every day. Those videos are often connected directly to content that I’m required to teach. But even if they aren’t, they build my overall levels of scientific knowledge. And more importantly, they keep me “tuned in” to the latest developments in a field that is constantly changing.
Stated more simply, the best preparation for teaching science in elementary and middle school is being interested in science. And the best way to feed an interest in science is to start watching science videos on YouTube.
That’s an interesting argument, isn’t it?
If any of this resonates with you, here’s a list of some of my favorite science communicators on YouTube. Give ’em a look and you are sure to learn a thing or two:
Mark Rober — Currently, my favorite science channel to follow on YouTube belongs to Mark Rober. While he only makes one video a month, what I love about Mark’s videos is that he is always using the scientific method to solve some kind of interesting problem or to answer some kind of ridiculous question — and he shows the steps that he takes to engineer his solutions. Want a few samples of his work? Then check out Drinking Nasty Swamp Water and Can You Swim in Jello?
The King of Random — Like Mark Rober, the minds behind The King of Random channel on YouTube conduct legit experiments in an attempt to answer interesting questions using the scientific method. Their videos show the thinking behind each experiment, the process used in setting up the experiment, and the results learned from the experiment. For a taste of The King of Random’s content — which is posted to YouTube five days a week — check out Will Food Go Bad in a Vaccum? and Can You Powderize Coke?
The Backyard Scientist — If you haven’t figured it out already, I really dig channels where creators are asking interesting questions and then conducting experiments to test their results. That’s what you will find on The Backyard Scientist — a channel hosted by Kevin Kohler. Kohler’s videos aren’t as polished as Mark Rober’s or The King of Random, but anytime you can see someone chainsaw Ooblek in an attempt to find out just how strong it really is, I figure it’s worth the view.
Physics Girl — Physics Girl — hosted by Dianna Cowern and sponsored by PBS Digital Studios — is another channel where asking and answering interesting questions with science is the focus of every video. Much like Mark Rober’s videos, Dianna designs and conducts cool experiments all while teaching you a thing or two about how the world around us works. Here’s her most recent video: Dyed Pool Vortex Rings.
Veritasium — Veritasium is a little different than channels like Mark Rober and The King of Random because its host — Derek Muller — uses his videos to try to teach his viewers a thing or two about the world of science. That makes his content more information than experimentation. He tackles topics, though, that I guarantee you will find interesting. I also guarantee that you will be smarter for having watched them. Here’s a sample: Why are 96,000,000 Black Balls on this Reservoir?
Smarter Every Day — Destin Sandlin, the creator of the content on the Smarter Every Day channel, starts every video with an interesting question that he attempts to answer using the scientific method. Whether he wants to know how hard you can hit a golf ball without warping its shape or how far a bullet fired from a machine gun can travel underwater, he documents his experiments with incredible slow motion video. That makes his videos visually interesting and informative. Be prepared, though: He tackles challenging science — things like laminar flow and viscosity. Some of this might feel like it is above your head. But wrestling with hard ideas is what getting smarter every day is all about.
Minute Earth — One of my favorite types of science videos are those that pair interesting science content with neat animations or colorful graphics that tell a story. You know what I’m talking about. The type of content that you see in Ted Ed videos. That’s the kind of content that you will find on Henry Reich’s Minute Earth channel. Reich uses these animations and graphics to teach viewers all kinds of science concepts that are related to earth science — and that YOU are likely to learn at some point in school. Here’s a sample: Why Are Earthquakes So Hard to Predict?
TED Ed — TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, started as a conference for people to come and share 15 minute provocative presentations to audiences. Those presentations are always videoed and always shared online — but they are mostly designed for adult audiences. Recently, TED started creating super interesting animated content that tackle the topics that kids are studying in school called TED Ed videos. Chances are you’ve seen a few of them in school already. While the main channel includes videos about all kinds of subject areas, you can find their science themed content grouped into playlists like Getting Under Our Skin and Inventions that Changed History.
It’s Okay to Be Smart: Another channel sponsored by PBS Digital Studios, It’s Okay to Be Smart — which is hosted by Joe Hansen — tackles everything from silly questions that you’ve always wanted to know the answer to like Do Fish Pee? to more serious questions that might be really important to you like Why are So Many People Allergic to Food? I learned something really cool today in this video: Is Your Eye Color Real?
SciShow – SciShow was the first science video channel that I subscribed to on YouTube and it remains one of my favorite. Here’s why: The hosts — Hank Green, Michael Aranda, and Olivia Gordon — are equal parts brilliant AND hilarious. Their videos, which tackle traditional science content like How do Wastewater Treatment Plants Work? and Five Periodic Tables We Use (and One We Don’t), are filled with lots of funny side comments and corny jokes that make me laugh and pay closer attention to the video. SciShow is also the channel that I use the most in class because I can always find episodes on the things that we are studying in class. That will make it useful to you, too.
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Related Radical Reads:
https://buildingconfidentlearners.com/2019/06/08/are-you-a-youtube-recommendation-engine-for-your-students/
https://buildingconfidentlearners.com/2013/12/10/1453/
https://buildingconfidentlearners.com/2015/05/27/even-more-instagram-and-youtube-accounts-for-scichat-nation/
