Today my 10th grade son showed me several videos on YouTube he’s “liked” recently (they are conveniently accessible via an auto-generated playlist on his channel) including this one about physics and the four fundamental forces of nature, “The Force is Real” by Rusty Ward on his new YouTube series, “Science Friction.”
Years ago when he was in elementary school we started a podcast channel and website we called “Talking Science,” in which we discussed really big questions like “Is there life out in the universe?” and “What are black holes in space?” after being inspired watching NOVA Science specials together. It’s exciting to see his interest in science continues to be fed with high quality media, but now it’s increasingly via YouTube videos like this one.
Alex also showed me this “Science Friction” video from July, “Heal Like Wolverine.” It’s interesting and filled with real science ideas, but does have some sexual references in it that you definitely want to watch and consider first before showing it to a class of students at school. (It may be fine, depending on your situation, but it’s not something you want to be caught off-guard about.)
From a digital storytelling standpoint, I think the sequence of camera shots Rusty uses in “Science Friction” videos are interesting to study. He alternates between two different shots (a wide shot and a closeup shot) for his “A roll” / talking head clips, and intersperses B roll still images as well as short video clips to heighten engagement and understanding. They’re very well done and worth checking out!
Technorati Tags: science, youtube, video, physics
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