I found a YouTube channel of the many videos this team has made. I thought I'd share to future teachers, as they are mostly short (around 3 minutes), quirky and could be used as a "hook" to start a lesson. They seem to cover higher elementary or even high school science topics, but they are age appropriate and could spawn some higher order thinking at a young age. Take this video for example:
Yes, first graders will not be learning about these chemistry terms, but they do have noses and can smell rain! A video like this could promote observation and questioning for kids.
I was recently in Texas visiting my sister and nieces. My nieces are almost 5 and 3 and terrified of thunderstorms (it rained a lot when I was there).
When we first picked them up from pre-school, it was thundering and lightning and I taught them to try counting between a strike of lightning and the thunder to measure the rough distance of the storm.
Their minds were blown.
Now they had something to do other then panic about the loud noises and rain coming in. The counting made them look at the storm from a different angle. I wish I would have seen this video about the smell of rain as it could have fit right in. We could have taken a moment to observe the different smells as the storm came in.
Here's a link to the entire YouTube channel. The posts are often introduced with a question from a kid and the range of topics is extensive. Happy YouTubing!
Disclaimer: Yes, I noticed the raindrops in the video are incorrect and further promote the misconception that raindrops look like pears. I found this image that helped me understand the shape better:
I love it! I did always wonder what that smell was. Thanks for sharing this! The video's informative and fun. And the raindrop diagram clears that up too.
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