How Teacher-Generated Videos Support Students in Science

At the height of the pandemic lockdown and remote learning, instructional videos created by teachers became a fixture in how school was done. Asynchronous learning was a new catchphrase in education at that time, describing how students would learn without the direct, live interaction with their teacher. Class could be held live from home over a Zoom meeting, or learners could access a video recording. Students would watch a video or screencast prepared by the teacher and use the shared content to complete an independent task after the mini-lesson.

While instructional videos were prepared out of necessity in the past, I’ve rediscovered their utility as a quick, flexible, and personal way to enhance classroom teaching. Instructional videos can be created through free screencasting software such as Screencastify, ScreenRec, Loom, or OBS Studio. Screencasting would be ideal for the direct presentation of information, like a slide deck of notes. Phone cameras make practical recording devices for live content beyond the computer screen, like a science demo. A teacher could invest in a phone stand and ring light at a nominal cost to assist in this type of recording.

However, not all teacher videos are created equal, and I’ve discovered four benefits and strategies that help make these teaching tools more effective.

1. Built-In Accountability Measures

I’ve observed that staying under five minutes seems to be the sweet spot for retaining student attention when creating instructional videos. Longer video content may have its perks if a teacher wishes to discuss a concept in depth, but I found that keeping a five-minute time limit maintains learner engagement and allows me to use the video in a more flexible manner.

I recently created a chemistry-themed tutorial video using Screencastify and visuals presented on Google Slides. My goal was to demonstrate how students can use the periodic table to create atom models of different elements. I walked the learners stepwise through drawing the particles of the nucleus, the electron arrangement, and how the periodic table could be used to retrieve this information.

To help guide student thinking, you can add a Google Form questionnaire with sequential questions that correspond to the content of the video. I would suggest choosing three or four important points that can be clearly articulated verbally, along with images and text (for example, “The atomic number of an element describes how many protons to draw in the nucleus”). These are not high-level inference questions, but simple recall prompts that bring attention to critical information. Doing this helped me ensure that students not only watched the video, but also came away with specific information that I wanted them to learn.

2. Flexible Teaching Tool

One of the reasons why the teacher-generated videos were so effective for me during the lockdown was that they allowed me to be in many places at once to support my learners. The same rule applies during a typical school day in person, for many reasons:

• A student returning from an absence may need a short review of the material covered while they were out.
• A formative exit ticket might show me that a learner needs to practice a concept that was covered during a direct teaching experience.
• A student misses a critical point in your lesson because they were distracted by a neighbor (in middle school science, this happens with regularity).

When students need reteaching of a concept, teacher-generated videos are very convenient differentiation tools for various learners. This is another benefit of keeping the instructional videos succinct. Teachers can have a student watch a video where they receive individualized instruction on a topic on an as-needed basis and spot-check that student’s level of understanding within a short time frame.

3. Personalization Matters

It’s easy to get intimidated by the great science YouTube gurus out there, like Hank Green from CrashCourse or the Amoeba Sisters. Believe it or not, in my experience, I’ve seen that students prefer to hear instruction delivered by their own teacher. They’re familiar with our delivery, presentation, and examples when explaining concepts.

I’ve noticed that when I include footage from home in my videos, whether it’s me in my driveway, at my home office, or performing some science in the kitchen, students connect with my life outside of the classroom. On a deeper level, I feel like this proves that science is accessible to all learners and is not reserved for a clinical lab. Good science can be conducted in places like the driveway and backyard, and we can encounter compelling natural phenomena in our common, everyday experiences.

4. Bringing the Outdoors Indoors

In addition to screencasts, showing short teaching videos filmed outside of the school walls brings a fun and entertaining dynamic to a science lesson. Years ago, a co-teacher friend and I visited New York to see a museum. We passed through Central Park on our travels, and my co-teacher asked that we stop and record a video of a boulder in the park. I started a video recording on my phone, and my colleague proceeded to expertly explain the evidence of glacial erosion preserved in the boulder. His delivery was funny and entertaining, and he was able to bring an authentic example of science to our students who might not otherwise have had the opportunity.

I used the experience at Central Park as inspiration to create a similar video to show how the volume of an object could be measured by placing it in a container of water. In the video, I demonstrated water displacement by stepping into a tub of ice water in my front yard and attempting to calculate how many liters of water my body occupied. Again, the appeal of this was for students to see an example of science that could not be brought into the classroom.

Teacher-generated instructional videos have a host of benefits in the classroom and are a dynamic alternative to traditional direct teaching. They can serve as a valuable touchpoint for students, much like a textbook. Students can refer to these videos whenever necessary to help them retain new science concepts and vocabulary.