Tuesday, 7 February 2012

The Periodic Table of Videos

As my final post in my rediscovery process I want to briefly provide some feedback on the following online resource. It is called the Periodic Table of Videos and was created by The University of Nottingham and video journalist Brady Haran. The site contains a video for all 118 elements on the periodic table. The videos consist of descriptions of the elements, stories, samples, and experiments. The sit also has other series of videos on the go including a molecular series and new stories along with videos from adventures outside the lab. I wanted to make a specific posting just on this resource because I believe it has great potential for any chemistry classroom, especially for a teacher who may not be as comfortable with the material as others. Below I have included the video that goes with the element Hydrogen. The video provides a mixture of explanation along with an exciting experiment with a balloon filled with hydrogen... you can just imagine what happens.


The second video that I want to share with you from this neat site is from their new molecular series. It is about toxins that tiny frogs, usually found in Latin America, produce as a protection mechanism. A very small amount of the toxins can kill a human by attacking the nervous system. The frogs are endangered but they have broken down the toxin into its compound parts and can create it synthetically.   I really liked this video because I can see using it in a biology class and again connects biology and chemistry.


The videos done for this site are put together so well and and are extremely informative and engaging. This would have to be my favourite resource that I came across during this process. I would bookmark it if I were you!

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