Veritasium in the Modeling Classroom

When I was a novice modeler I was constantly searching for quality online video resources to share with my students.  I quickly discovered that YouTube was rife with explanatory science videos, but I had a hard time finding ones that fit with my classroom culture. 

Modeling Instruction^TM is specifically designed so students construct meaning without being told what to think and I needed videos that aligned with this philosophy.  That’s when I ran across this TedEd talk with Dr. Derek Muller.

Go ahead, watch it.  It’s worth it.  I’ll wait.

While watching this I actually found myself emphatically shaking my head in agreement with Dr. Muller.  I might have even shouted, “YES!” at the screen.  He described the need to have students voice misconceptions and engage in social interaction – this is what we do during our whiteboarding sessions!  I went to his YouTube Chanel, Veritasium, and started searching through his videos. 

Here are some of my favorites aligned with the units in Chemistry Modeling Instruction^TM:

Unit 1

Atomic Theory:  The very first Veritasium Video!

Unit 2

States of Matter:  Illustrates how states of matter differ at the particle level

Supercooled Water:  Explains the phenomenon and replicates the experiment where water freezes almost instantaneoulsy

Unit 3

Misconceptions about Temperature: Derek compares temperatures of metal and non-metal objects

Misconceptions about Heat:  A follow up to the previous video

Unit 6

Cathode Ray Tubes Lead to the Thomson Model:  Derek recreates the cathode ray experiment

Thomson's Plum Pudding Model:  The first model with subatomic structure is proposed

And then just for fun - here's a video about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.  I don't get to teach this in my first year course, but I show it in my advanced class.

I know many of you are already using Veritasium in your classrooms.  What are your favorite videos?