By Anthony Kane, Teacher of Chemistry.
Chemistry is, fundamentally, a very exciting and dynamic subject.
Part of the reason for this is the practical work we undertake – this takes two main forms, the class practical and the teacher demonstration.
When thinking about chemistry demonstrations, most students (past and present) will think of bangs, explosions and fire – all good things, but all over rather quickly. Some of you might remember, as I do, the disappointment when a teacher got you excited for a demonstration, only to watch it fizzle, sputter, and their subsequent and despondent “it wasn’t supposed to do that…
Imagine if we could replay, in slow motion, our favourite demos, to watch the magic of reality unfold frame by frame. Imagine always being able to see the demonstration clearly, regardless of where you were in the class. Imagine if we had a backup in case a demonstration, for whatever reason, went awry. Imagine if we were teaching a different topic entirely, and felt that now would be a wonderful time to illustrate our point with a display, but there was no time to throw it together. (Imagine if you wanted to show all your friends really cool science videos…)
These were the ideas that I had in mind when I started recording demonstrations during lessons at Wimbledon High School. Since then I have put together a catalogue of over twenty videos of common classroom demonstrations, and played them countless times. Using our Windows Surface Laptops, and connecting wirelessly to our SmartBoards, I am able to project what I am recording while it is being recorded.
The advantages are huge. Twenty students cannot all see one small beaker on a desk, but project it to the room and they can all get a perfect view. Sometimes the eye is not quick enough, or we blink, but with a video, we can go back and watch it again. We can slow it down, we can analyse frame by frame, and our learning is richer for it.
“Boom” goes the thermite.
Another aspect of the videos that I think particularly embodies the spirit of learning here at Wimbledon High is the sheer joy that students find in watching these demonstrations. “Ooh”s and “Ah”s are just as gratifying on recording as they are the first time you listen to them live in a lesson. One of our stated aims here at Wimbledon High is to nurture curiosity and a sense of wonder, and listening to some of the clips below, I hope you would agree that we are doing just that.
“Woah!”
“WOAAAAH!”
Where does this leave the future of chemical education? I think that the next logical step would be to record the method of class practicals – so that these videos can be distributed to students in advance of lessons and set as required viewing for the lesson. This would empower students to feel more confident with their equipment, have more time in the lesson to gather data, and to have more belief in their own abilities as scientists, encouraging their independence as learners. This would also prepare them well for scientific disciplines at university, which often require you to familiarise yourself with pre-lab exercises before entering a laboratory.
This is also a promising avenue for developing school partnerships. These videos are broadly applicable to many chemistry curricula, and we are fortunate at Wimbledon High to have excellent facilities and lab technicians. Sharing the fruits of our chemical labour is quick, easy, and importantly very beneficial to the education of others. I have already begun sharing my collection with another school and look forward to increasing their reach as time goes on.
Science is a practical discipline, and chemistry is a particularly visual subject. By offering students more opportunities to experience its beauty we open them up to a world of possibilities; an exciting pathway to deeper understanding of the universe, a subject both big and small, with deep history and philosophy, heroes and villains, and instil in them a lifelong appreciation for nature.