This week I’ve covered my top 5 middle school science channels on YouTube!
As a YouTube fan, I’ve successfully merged my passion for video content and science learning and I think you’ll find this list of channels pretty useful.
Science channels on Youtube can be utilised as a tool to present information and scientific concepts in fun, creative and engaging ways. The incredible people that run these channels make their videos interesting and exciting to watch by adding special effects, conducting real-life experiments, and through their exciting personalities and enthusiasm for the lessons they are teaching.
Who doesn’t have at least one teacher who you’ll remember until the end of time simply due to their infectious enthusiasm for their subject?
I think these 5 science Youtube channels will enhance your science lessons and keep your students engaged, learning, and at the very least, entertained.
Our Top 5 Middle School Science Channels
1. Minutephysics
This Youtube channel was created by Henry Reich. Henry studied theoretical physics and mathematics at Grinnell College and received a master’s from the Perimeter Institute of theoretical physics. Henry’s next venture took him on the path of becoming an VFX artist for a YouTube channel called Freddie Wong which kick-started his career as a professional YouTuber. Henry has since received Nobel laureates for his superb YouTube content.
He uses the shorter video format to explain science and physics topics to his viewers. Henry uses hand-drawn doodles which are sped up to follow the narration of the concept being explained which makes following the explanation easy for students, that are both helpful and captivating.
Minutephysics provides perfect videos for straight-to-the-point learning. Henry’s motto for his channel is: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” – Rutherford via Einstein
2. Veritasium
The creator of Veritasium, Dr. Derek Muller was the winner of the Streamy award for Science and Education in 2017. The channel is produced brilliantly and will remind you of the types of content you can watch on the Discovery channel. Derek’s channel focuses on delivering Veritasium, or rather in his words, “the element of truth” in a variety of scientific topics.
The channel captivates the audience with mind-blowing experiments, interesting concepts and brilliant presenting by Derek. Veritasium is a must watch Youtube channel which will make science more fun and easier to understand for your students, and activate their curious nature.
3. CrashCourse
CrashCourse is one of the most well-known educational Youtube channels around, and for good reason! John and Hank Green, along with three other prominent Youtube hosts, provide full video courses on a multitude of various scientific topics. On top of being produced and hosted brilliantly, the videos will assist in explaining hard to grasp scientific concepts.
Essentially free online courses, these videos will benefit your students with their easy to follow learning style that is informative, fun and engaging.
4. Vsauce
The channel was created by Michael Stevens in 2010 and has since gathered one of the largest followings of any science channel on Youtube. Michael has the ability to break down the most complex topics and ideas in an easy to understand way. His videos are always captivating and he has had an array of famous people featured in his videos, including Sir David Attenborough, Adam Savage, (Mythbusters) Chris Pratt, among others.
Vsauce is a channel that has videos that will entertain and inspire your students and expose them to a mindset of curiosity that is unique to Michael and his perspective of the world.
5. Periodic Videos
This is the ultimate channel for all things chemistry. Interesting experiments and an eccentric host make this an informative and entertaining channel that will assist your students in understanding the periodic table and other topics in chemistry. The channel is hosted by Sir Martyn Poliakoff who is extremely knowledgeable on all things chemistry – having a PhD in chemistry will do that to you.
The experiments conducted on the channel can be very useful as teaching tools in your lessons, and provide your students with a fantastic approach to the fundamentals of experimentation and maybe some experiments that aren’t always possible in class.
The wonders of the YouTube
The wonders of Youtube (and the Internet for that matter) are both its biggest strength and its biggest weakness. The vast amount of content on YouTube can educate and inform, or it can just outright distract students.
It is important to ensure that students are engaging with beneficial content on Youtube and online, and ensuring that topics out of bounds are restricted and inaccessible during school hours.
Mobile Guardian’s Campus Solution gives educators all the tools required to allow students to safely and responsibly use Youtube in the classroom, with our YouTube Filter, you’re able to block specific channels, topics, videos and even keywords.
Click here to start a Free Trial today.
Onwards
Michael Rosenthal
Team Mobile Guardian
