educational technology

Five Tips for Creating Chemistry Tutorials on YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts are 60-second vertical aspect ratio videos that are meant for cell phone viewing. Since they are shorter and easier for students to access than traditional YouTube videos, Josh Kenney has started creating more of them for his blended chemistry class. Check out some of his tips for creating effective chemistry tutorials with YouTube Shorts.

How to Use TikTok and YouTube Shorts in Your Chemistry Class

TikTok and YouTube Shorts are video sharing platforms for short-form, vertical aspect videos. Both of these services are growing more quickly in popularity compared to more traditional video formats. Josh Kenney shares some of the ways that he is using short-form videos in his chemistry class and shares a free resource (an exam review worksheet that links to a YouTube Shorts playlist through a QR code).

Airbag challenge

In the “Airbag challenge” the students are tasked with developing a safe airbag for a car company. This formative assessment explores students’ thinking about the question “How can chemical changes be controlled?” The central concept in this challenge is the application is stoichiometry. Students are expected to use the numbers of moles of reactant consumed or product formed in a balanced chemical equation and to determine the change in the number of moles of any other reactant and product. Students need to use molar mass to convert mass of a reactant or product to moles for use in stoichiometric calculations or to convert moles from stoichiometric calculations to mass. Students use the ideal gas law equation to determine the numbers of moles in a sample of gas not at standard conditions.

BCCE, Collaboration and Flipgrid

Since I am unable to attend BCCE this year, I am asking for readers to consider two things to help me out. First, if you are attending BCCE, I hope you will submit a blog post to ChemEd X outlining at least one thing you learned. Second, I hope to find one or more teachers willing to try out Flipgrid and open our classrooms to share what we are teaching/learning.