Last evening my 11 year-old son shared with me the YouTube Video “Charlie Bit My Finger”. If you are more like my son and less like me, you probably have already seen the cute sibling clip that is approaching 70 million views and dozens of new posted remixes and re-enactments. If you do a Google search in quotes, you can find over 300,000 sites sharing or discussing this video.

As science teachers, we know the power of analogies to help students connect new concepts to existing conceptions already wired into their brains. Certainly, knowing what students know is a prerequisite for using analogies. References to pop culture can be a good source. Now, for example, if someone does something that is likely to cause a problem in science class, I could say, “Obviously if you put your finger in Charlie’s mouth, it’s going to get bitten!” And of course, we know the power of humor for keeping science class lively. Every time my son says, “Char-lie bit me and that really hurt,” with a British accent, I chuckle.

I had a science teacher colleague in the Bronx, who argued with me that we shouldn’t relate to students through their culture, but should expose them to a higher culture. Since she went to Stanford as an undergraduate, and I went to the University of Buffalo, it is possible that I never scaled that same cultural plateau (but I did have my high school biology class dissect chicken wings which are world famous because of Buffalo, NY). But I know there are others like me who like to stay connected with the youth we teach.

So how does my generation stay connected with the top videos?

Within the YouTube environment, clicking on videos, you can sort by “most popular” or “most viewed” and you can select the timeframe desired (such as one day, one week, or one month). In this way, I came across “Sneezing Panda”, usable in all sorts of lessons, such as stimulus and response, the nervous system, or animal behavior. There is also the Viral Video Chart, where you can see the graphs of popularity rankings for videos on the internet, not just on YouTube.

Of course, I had to select the category “Science and Technology” to see the most viewed videos of all time in this category. Sadly, most had nothing to do with science, but I found the very well produced and suspenseful “Oxygen (new version) – Periodic Table of Videos”.

So you can search, view, and relate to the world of adolescents. Or, you can wait for an adolescent to share a bit of their world with you. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t discover “Charlie” on my own because it was delightful having my son share it with me. And even though he saw it many times before, when he showed it to me we both had hearty laughs—together. 

Resources:

Adaptive Curriculum’s “Habit Designer: Panda” (which will create a much nicer habitat than what you see in the “Sneezing Panda” video. 

Cole Camplese September 30, 2008 What YouTube’s ‘Charlie bit my finger’ tells us about Web 2.0: Our hunger to create, share, and talk is fueling a media revolution. Christian Science Monitor

Top Science Videos

YouTube Page of the Most Viewed All Time Videos

I received the following email from a reader of this blog:

Hi Peter – I have a professional question for you as a teacher, a parent, and a science guru…

Do you think it is appropriate or inappropriate for a 5th grade (kids age 10) teacher to show her class a series of YouTube movies about the theory that the US astronauts did NOT land on the moon back in the 1960′s?  This is during a unit on Astronomy.

I know my own take on it – I just wanted to see what you thought/think?

-Amy

Thank you for the question Amy. Here is my answer….

First, it is difficult to know the motivation of the teacher for showing this. If she had expertise in the space program and she was presenting these non-scientific ideas to show how science and logic can refute them, I would say excellent.

But alas, I suspect this was not the case. More likely the teacher heard of the allegations that the landing on the Moon was a fraud, and was interested enough to read the allegations, without spending the time to look deeper. Sharing just the allegations with students through YouTube videos is not, in my opinion, what a teacher of science should do.

I still remember my parents waking me up from bed and leading me downstairs to the playroom to watch the astronauts landing on the Moon. The NASA accomplishment helped Americans realize the importance of science and technology, and for many children, it ignited more interest in science.

Of course there are so many lunar landing conspiracy theories throwing up so many trial balloons, that it would take a team of scientists a lifetime to keep shooting them all down. Some are easy to dismiss. “Hey, the US flag is blowing in the wind and there is no air on the moon. It’s a fake!” Although I don’t remember much as a 9 year old, I remember the announcers making the point that since there was no air or wind, NASA put wires into the flag to hold it up.

Then there is the logical question, why can’t we just point a telescope at the places where they landed so we can see if their stuff is there?

But according to NASA, “The Moon is 384,400 km away. At that distance, the smallest things Hubble can distinguish are about 60 meters wide.” We will someday have probes and people return to the moon that will confirm the existence of these leftover materials. You might think that would put it all to rest but guess what? This is already anticipated by the conspiracy theorists, who say, well un-manned vessels could have put the materials there.

If it was a hoax, you would think the fewer people involved the better. Why not pretend to go just once, instead of nine times so less people are involved? There are 12 astronauts that walked on the moon, who indicated it really happened. There are hundreds of other NASA personnel who also say the same thing. From personal accounts to moon rocks, the evidence suggests this did happen.

I can’t take the time to research all the theories and all the counter-arguments. But in my mind, science is so rarely taught in elementary classrooms, that it is a sin to spend science instructional time on pseudo-science via YouTube videos. Let’s spend time helping students learn about science and the contributions it has made.

Resources

Adaptive Curriculum’s Activity Object, “Make a Telescope: See the Moon.”

BadAstronomy.com. “Fox TV and the Apollo Moon Hoax“ (Air Date: February 13, 2001)

Mythbusters Episode 104: “NASA Moon Landing” (Air Date: August 27, 2008)

Redzero. “MoonHoax”

In my “Physics for Teachers” class, when student groups present hands-on lessons, they sometimes start with a YouTube video. They are usually well selected and they turn out to be interesting and short. These videos are easy to find and in a university setting easy to display. While some schools have blocked YouTube as a website because of some content, there are workarounds for downloading the videos as .flv files (such as TechCrunch) and playing or converting them with flv players (my favorite for the Macintosh is the free iSquint.

On August 12, 2008, Smartteaching.org posted their 100 top YouTube videos for teachers. Below, I present their science list.

Resources

Adaptive Curriculum’s “Making Sperm and Eggs: Meiosis” Uses Flash-based animations and interactions.