Instructional Video Assignment Part I

I have selected 6^th grade as my target group for my instructional video assignment. Since I will be returning to teach science in the fall, and we are going to adopt the next generation science standards, I selected physics as my topic area. The specific area of physics that we are going to be taking a look at is potential and kinetic energy. The student population in this area is very low socioeconomic status, and therefore we qualify for all kinds of funding, particularly in the area of technology. The funding made available was used to purchase laptops for every single middle school student, which allows for our classrooms to be one-to-one student to laptop ratio. This provides the opportunity for me to post videos, links, etc. for students to work through at their own pace. 

Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K4V0NvUxRg

Using this video in my classroom to help give an introduction to both kinetic and potential energy would be very useful. The rationale for using this video comes from the “story” like method that it follows to tell the story. I like the way they use a character to explain what is going on throughout the presentation. This would help the students make a more meaningful connection because when the video is finished, I can ask them about what happened to the character at different points in the film. I have found that because of student’s innate fondness of video games and movies, characters are important to them. Instead of referencing something like, “What type of energy was involved when the rock was on the cliff?” I could phrase it as, “What type of energy did our character need to be worried about when he was standing underneath the rock?” I feel that this puts more emphasis on the active character in the video and students would be more likely to remember the part in the movie where this took place.

Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ASLLiuejAo

This video would be helpful in introducing energy in my classroom for a couple reasons. The first being, its Bill Nye the science guy and kids just love this character. The second reason this video is excellent to use is because of the demonstration that he does to demonstrate the amount of kinetic energy an object has. It is one thing to explain to your students that there can never be more kinetic energy than potential energy, but to actually take a bowling ball and swing it out and back is a powerful way to represent that for kids. I also really like how he quickly shows how energy transformation can occur in a way that is simple enough for 6^th graders to understand, but still contains all the complexities associated with the transfer of energy. Additionally, I feel that this video would provide a firm basis from which to spark a discussion about energy transfer, and then ultimately get into the conservation of energy.