Every week Jacob Clark Blickenstaff, PhD, selects a video from the worldwide web and presents it on NSTA's home page for our edification and enjoyment. This is the archive of his picks.
You may also enjoy Jacob's movie reviews.
Posted May 6, 2013
Scientific approach to traffic management:
After you get used to watching cars on the left side of the road, this video will give you a glimpse of how traffic planning can be done to balance the needs of pedestrians, motorists, and cyclists. Replacing signals with a version of a roundabout has been quite successful in this English town. YouTube link
Posted April 29, 2013: Encore Presentation
Beautiful music from Japan:
This is an advertisement, but the science is really cool… First, there is the conversion of gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy and sound energy. Second, there is the fact that the note sounded by each wooden bar is determined by the length of the bar, with long bars producing low notes and short bars high notes. Finally, there is the idea of blending old technology (wood) with new technology in a sustainable way. (The phones are made using scrap wood that would otherwise be discarded.) YouTube link
Posted April 22, 2013
Vintage toys:
The final machine of Rube Goldberg month at NSTA is built largely out of old toys and games, which I think is a great version of recycling. This is an excerpt from a documentary about Rube Goldberg machines, titled Mousetrap to Mars. Vimeo link
Posted April 15, 2013
How to read the paper:
Now, this Rube Goldberg machine actually does something useful, and all you have to do is take a sip of your coffee. I also like the fact that there are chemical reactions, a change of state, and the use of a pet in this contraption. The steam condensing in the sponge to tip a lever is very clever, and may be unique to this machine. YouTube link
Posted April 8, 2013
Musical machine:
This machine is built out of the parts of a Honda car, tires, cogs, windshield wipers, and more. Unlike last week's machine, this one includes energy stored in batteries to activate some elements. There is also a seemingly impossible sequence of tires rolling up a ramp. See if you or your students can figure out how that was done (it is not a video trick.) YouTube link
Posted April 1, 2013
Musical machine:
The band OK Go is known for their wacky, low-budget music videos, and this one is fun for science teachers. They have built an amazing Rube Goldberg machine, some of which even plays part of the tune. Look for conversions of gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy, and the use of stored elastic energy in springs. YouTube link
Posted March 25, 2013
Sarcastic fringehead:
This has got to be one of the best common names for an animal ever. As you can see in this video, sarcastic fringeheads are aggressive and very territorial. They live off the coast of California, from San Francisco to Baja. The open-mouth display you see near the end of the video makes them look much larger than they really are, and that can chase away the competition. YouTube link
Posted March 18, 2013
Relative motion:
This is an advertisement for a brand of truck, but it is also an excellent way to introduce relative motion. The two trucks, the rope, and the high-liner are all moving relative to the ground, but not moving relative to each other. To fully describe motion, it is essential clearly state your "frame of reference" so that others will know what "zero velocity" actually means. YouTube link
Posted March 11, 2013
Active eruption:
Mt. Etna is a currently active volcano on the Italian island of Sicily, and this video shows some amazing footage of lava fountains from just last week. There is no voice over, so you can hear the deep rumble associated with the eruption. Etna produces thick, viscous lava, so it is classified as a stratovolcano (or composite volcano), in contrast to shield volcanoes like those in Hawaii. YouTube link
Posted March 4, 2013
Barreleye Fish:
If this video did not come from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, I'd probably be skeptical of the existence of such an odd looking creature. The eyes of the "Barreleye Fish" are protected by a transparent "cover" and can rotate from looking up to looking forward, past the fish's nose. YouTube link
Posted February 25, 2013
Flyby:
Earth-crossing asteroids—or the newer term, Potentially Hazardous Asteroids—have been in the news of late because of the passing of asteroid 2012 DA14 just 17,000 miles away from the Earth. While that may sound far away, it is closer than many satellites that orbit the Earth about 25,000 miles up. Finding and tracking Potentially Hazardous Asteroids is essential if we are to have any warning of events even more dramatic than the meteor in Russia on February 15. NASA video link
Posted February 18, 2013
No spoiler alert (Upside Downton Abbey):
Sesame Street does it again, with a great parody of Downton Abbey, reminding everyone to keep track of which way is up. It is also interesting to note how different the faces of the puppets look when they are upside-down. Our brains are much better at recognizing faces when they are in the correct orientation. YouTube link
Posted February 11, 2013
Love is in the air:
In honor of Valentine's Day, here is a nifty video about how the male Superb Bird-of-Paradise constructs his spectacular display. As the narrator notes, this is an amazing transformation, and it happens so quickly that a slow motion animation is needed to sort out the details. YouTube link
Posted February 4, 2013
Chicken or egg?
You might think that the question "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" is unanswerable. Well, this video uses science to come up with a pretty convincing argument that _______ came first. (You will just have to watch the video to find out.) Along the way, you'll review some genetics and evolution terminology. YouTube link
Posted January 28, 2013
Close-up with polar bear:
The music is perhaps overdramatic, but the images of this polar bear trying to get into the plexiglass box are striking. Polar bears are huge: adult males can weigh up to 1,500 pounds, and stand five feet tall at the shoulder. They eat mainly seals, which means they spend most of their time at the edges of the arctic ice pack. The population appears to be stable since hunting polar bears has been severely limited for decades. YouTube link
Posted January 21, 2013
Forced perspective:
Fans of The Lord of the Rings and now The Hobbit probably know that filmmakers use a lot of tricks to make hobbits appear to be smaller than humans, even though the actors are about the same size. This short video reveals one of the tricks: put an object farther away from the camera and it will appear smaller. YouTube link
Posted January 14, 2013
Snowflakes:
Now is the season for snow (across most of the US, at least) and we often hear that no two snowflakes are alike. Well, this video from the American Chemical Society gives you the details, and reveals that at least some kinds of (very small) snowflakes are essentially the same. YouTube link
Posted January 7, 2013
The Earth is round!
Perhaps your students just accept the idea that the Earth is round, but scientists ask for evidence, rather than just accepting authoritative statements. So what evidence is there that the Earth is round? Minute Physics will give you 10 examples. YouTube link
Posted December 31, 2012
Harp sponge:
It is always neat to learn about a new species being found and described in the scientific literature. This is a great reminder that a great deal of our planet is still not fully explored, and there will always be more science to do. These harp sponges were found off the coast of California, 3300–3500 meters below the surface. YouTube link
Posted December 17, 2012
Cribs, ISS style:
This is much longer than my usual picks, but it is such a good tour of the International Space Station that I can't pass it up. Sunita Williams takes us through the whole place, highlighting the viewing ports, the "kitchen," space suits, and of course the bathroom. It's a great opportunity to see how astronauts live in zero g, and what they have to do to stay healthy during 6 months in the ISS. YouTube link
Posted December 10, 2012
High speed and slow motion:
Cheetahs are the fastest land animals alive today, and this film provides incredible detail of how they do it. A high-speed camera moving along with the cat as it chases down a little grey ball at nearly 60 mph. I also really liked seeing the equipment used and the run at normal speed as the video concluded. Vimeo link
Posted December 3, 2012
Tops:
Wow. I have seen my share of tops in action, and used a few when teaching high school physics, but this collection is amazing. A spinning top is the classic example of conservation of angular momentum. Once an object is set spinning, a torque is required to change the direction of its angular momentum vector, so spinning objects are more stable than those that are not spinning. YouTube link
Posted November 26, 2012
"Houchen's" Principle:
When I taught about waves in my physics classes, I must admit that I pronounced this name like an English speaker, not a native Dutch speaker. This professor adds a bit of fun linguistics to his physics lecture. YouTube link
Posted November 19, 2012
Ladybug takeoff:
I knew ladybugs had red and black backs, and I knew that they could fly, but until I watched this high resolution, slow-motion video I didn't realize how complex the process of getting up in the air is for a ladybug. The wing covers have to lift out of the way before the wings can unfurl and start beating. (There's also a nice water drop shot in the middle of this video.) YouTube link
Posted November 12, 2012
Baumgartner's free fall:
By now most everyone knows that Felix Baumgartner set the world record for highest free fall and broke the speed of sound without an aircraft. This recap of the event gives teachers a chance to ask a couple of neat questions. First, the amount of helium in the balloon did not increase during the flight, but the balloon got much larger as it ascended. Why? Second, he fell 39,000 meters in 280 seconds, for an average speed of over 80 meters per second. Is that average speed a good description of his decent? YouTube link
Posted November 5, 2012
Time-lapse of Sandy in NYC:
This video gives a good sense of how the winds increased as Superstorm Sandy blew through New York City. The small waves increase dramatically to become whitecaps, and it's pretty amazing to see the lights in lower Manhattan go off. YouTube link
Posted October 29, 2012
Extreme fire weather:
A large fire can create its own local weather conditions by causing a huge updraft of hot air, which brings cooler air in at the base of the flames to feed the fire. Under the right conditions, a fire can even generate rotation in the air column and fire "tornadoes" like these will form. Vimeo link
Posted October 22, 2012
I'll have the clams:
You might think that a clam's shell would keep it safe from a predator like the slow-moving sea star, but you would be wrong. With all those arms, and thousands of sucker "feet" the sea star can pry the shell open, insert its stomach, and digest the clam from the inside out. All that remains is the empty shell. YouTube link
Posted October 15, 2012
Safety first:
You will not see videos in this space that show people handling dry ice, liquid nitrogen, or other dangerous materials in an unsafe manner. Those videos can certainly be found, but chemical and laboratory safety is not an issue to be taken lightly. A young woman in England has had part of her stomach surgically removed after an accident involving liquid nitrogen. Please follow proper safety precautions in all your classroom activities.
Posted October 8, 2012
More than a half-century of space exploration:
With new images coming from Mars every day as the Curiosity rover explores the area around Gale Crater, this video does a nice job showing how far space exploration has come in the last 55 years. The current era of cooperation around the international space station is a far cry from the space race of the 1950s and '60s. YouTube link
Posted October 1, 2012
'N Sync:
I had never seen anything like this before, but what it immediately reminded me of is the danger posed by resonance to structures like buildings and bridges. Notice at the start of the video how little the support is moving laterally (when all the metronomes are moving randomly) and compare it to the motion of the support at the end (when all 32 are moving together). The most famous example of destructive resonance is probably the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940. YouTube link
Posted September 24, 2012
Seasons change:
Summer is officially over, and we entered autumn with the equinox on September 22nd. This video shows the passing of a full year in just two minutes. Those of us who live relatively far from the equator are used to four seasons, but in the tropics the variation in daylight through the year is very small so there are usually just two seasons: wet and dry. YouTube link
Posted September 17, 2012
Yosemite's Horsetail Fall:
The Yosemite Valley should be on everyone's bucket list, and for photographers, a trip in February may be ideal. For two weeks every winter, the setting sun can illuminate the falls with yellow-orange light, but only if conditions are right. There must be enough snow melt for the falls to be flowing, and clouds and fog must be absent at just the right time. It looks spectacular. YouTube link
Posted September 10, 2012
Curiosity looks around:
After devoting August to the arrival of Curiosity on Mars, it seems appropriate to start September with one of the early views the rover has given us of the landing area. This video is a panorama of the landscape around the spot where Curiosity touched down, including Mount Sharp, the planned final destination for Curiosity. YouTube link
Posted August 27, 2012
The grand tour of Gale crater:
Scientists hope that the Curiosity rover will remain operable for at least two Earth years. All this time is needed to drive the rover from one geologic layer of rock to another. As you saw in last week's video, the rover does not move very fast, and the target landing site is some distance from the planned final destination for Curiosity. YouTube link
Posted August 20, 2012
Mars rover test:
Before the Curiosity rover got to Mars, it was necessary to test its ability to deal with challenging surface features like sand dunes and rock outcroppings. The Mojave desert in California served as a stand-in for the Red Planet when mission scientists practiced driving Curiosity before landing. YouTube link
Posted August 13, 2012
Chemistry on Mars:
One of the main questions Curiosity will be trying to answer is if the Martian surface was ever habitable for microbial life. Analytical chemistry will likely give scientists the answer. This video explains a few of the instruments on board the Mars Science Laboratory and how they will be used to determine the geologic history of the planet. YouTube link
Posted August 6, 2012
Seven minutes of terror:
The Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity rover, landed on Mars on August 6, 2012. In honor of this extraordinary project to examine the geologic history of Mars, all of my Picks will relate to Curiosity this month. This first video is an artistic rendering of the final decent and landing of the rover on the surface. YouTube link
Posted July 30, 2012
More fun with a Slinky:
If you haven't checked out the Veritasium site for science videos, you should. This one looks at the behavior of a hanging slinky when you let go of the top coils. It is still a surprise to me to see that the bottom coils don't even begin to fall until the top coils get to the bottom. Neat! YouTube link
Posted July 23, 2012
Walk this way?
No one knows exactly how the statues on Easter Island (known as "moai") came to be where they are, or why they were put there. Archeologists have proposed a method for moving the multi-ton moai using ropes and three teams of volunteers to "walk" the statues from place to place. Others propose wooden sleds or rollers as a more likely solution. Though Easter Island is treeless today, pollen evidence suggests that the island was forested up until about the time the moai stopped being made. YouTube link
Posted July 16, 2012
Drill down:
This video introduces a science project that is collecting data right now in the North Atlantic ocean. Careful examination of sediments accumulated on the sea floor can tell scientists about ocean currents, the acidity of the ocean through time, and climate change events that have occurred in the past. New segments are added regularly, so do check out the other videos of science actually being done this summer. YouTube link
Posted July 9, 2012
BMW bullet:
This advertisement recreates some famous high-speed photographs taken by Harold Edgerton with a car playing the part of a bullet. (Many of the images are available online.) I particularly like the water balloon sequence, since you can clearly see the water begin to fall as soon as the balloon is cut, but the car is gone and does not get wet. YouTube link
Posted July 2, 2012
Cold play:
With record-breaking heat across much of the country recently, and many folks without electricity in the East, I thought a video reminder of colder weather might be welcome. These two polar bear cubs are playing with whatever is nearby, trees, branches, and each other, a lesson many kids had to learn this past weekend. YouTube link
Posted June 25, 2012
Rare:
This beautifully shot and composed video calls attention to a number of species in danger of extinction. The contrast of the animals' colorful skin, feathers, and eyes against the white background is arresting, and I think motivational. Vimeo link
Posted June 18, 2012
Flying platform:
Building on the flying platform idea from last week, here is a hover-scooter. Hovercraft ride on a cushion of air pushed down against the ground and are usually large enough to carry many people. They have the advantage of easily transitioning from dry land to the water, but are very noisy as it takes a lot of moving air to hold up a large object. YouTube link
Posted June 11, 2012
Flying platform:
If you think riding a motorcycle is tricky and dangerous, check out this prototype "flying platform." It does not appear to be very stable, and the fact that they're keeping it tethered to the ground supports the idea that it wasn't completely under control. The two propellers rotate in opposite directions to produce opposite torques. Otherwise, when the propeller started, the platform would tend to spin in the opposite direction. YouTube link
Posted June 4, 2012
Measuring the universe:
With the recent solar eclipse and the rare transit of Venus happening this week, astronomy has been in the news lately. This video does a nice job explaining how astronomers measure the distance to stars and galaxies using a variety of methods. As the narrator notes at the end, all three methods fit together and build on each other to give a coherent picture of the universe. Vimeo link
Posted May 28, 2012
Osprey:
I was aware that some raptors are good at fishing. Until I saw this video, however, I had no idea that an osprey (or sea hawk) could get at a flat fish like a flounder that isn't even close to the surface. The osprey's feet-first dive into the water is an impressive fishing technique enabling them to catch fish with a mass up to 2 kg. YouTube link
Posted May 21, 2012
Welcome to the Anthropocene:
"Anthropocene" is a proposed geologic term for the period of Earth history when human activity has a major impact on processes like soil transport, chemical weathering, and biodiversity. The term was invented in 2000 by Eugene Stoermer, but the definition is still being debated. This video shows many impacts of humanity on the Earth, tracing shipping lanes, commercial aircraft paths, and population growth. I was particularly struck by how few places on the planet are far from a road network. Vimeo link
Posted May 14, 2012
Evacuated tube transport:
There are a lot of videos available on the web that depict proposed new technologies for transportation, energy generation, and communication. I take all of these with large grains (or crystals) of salt, as it is easy to create a professional-looking animation and hard to invent a world-changing new invention. Physics teachers could ask students to use the data in this video to verify the claim of traveling from NY to LA in 45 minutes, and also to brainstorm the technical challenges of building such a system. YouTube link
Posted May 7, 2012
Boron:
As May is the fifth month, let's take a look at boron, element number 5 on the periodic table. I grew up in California, where borax (a boron-containing mineral) is mined, and my family used Boraxo soap and 20 Mule Team Borax in the laundry. Borax is also a key ingredient in "flubber," a favorite elementary school polymer. YouTube link
Posted April 30, 2012
Lava flow:
This video from February 2012 shows some amazing lava flows on Kilauea. Relatively fast-moving, thin lava is called "pahoehoe" while the chunky, rough, slow-moving material is called "aa" (this shows up at 1:37 in the video). Lava sets fire to any trees it encounters, and then a hole is left after the trunk burns away and the lava cools (1:49). YouTube link
Posted April 23, 2012
US population patterns, 1700–1900:
This video shows the placement of post offices across the entire United States from 1700 to 1900. The difference in population density between the East and West Coasts is very clear, as are the paths of rivers and railroads. Check out the California gold rush of 1849 with the sudden spike in post offices on the West Coast. Vimeo link
Posted April 16, 2012
Earthquakes 2011:
This summary of global earthquake activity adds a couple of dimensions I have not seen before. First, the magnitude of the earthquake is indicated by the volume of the sound played (as well as by the size of the circle.) Second, the cumulative total number of earthquakes is plotted across the screen. Look and listen for the 9.0 Honshu earthquake around 1 minute 50 seconds. YouTube link
Posted April 9, 2012
Lunar evolution:
While we notice the changes in the phase of the Moon that happen every month, it is easy to think of the crater pattern as permanent. With no wind or weather, the lunar surface is much more stable than that of the Earth, but stable does not mean unchanging. This NASA video gives an outline of the impact history of the Moon that led to the features we know today. YouTube link
Posted April 2, 2012
April showers bring May flowers:
Watching flowers appear, seemingly overnight, is one of the joys of springtime. This time-lapse video of flowers opening emphasizes the beautiful colors and shapes and sheer variety of flowering plants. With all the color, it is easy to forget that flowers are all about pollination and reproductive success. Nectar is there to bring in pollinators (birds, bees, and other insects) to carry pollen from one flower to the next. Vimeo link
Posted March 26, 2012
The truth about magnesium:
My next long column will address some misunderstandings about element number 12, magnesium, that are being "taught" in a police procedural drama. The folks at the University of Nottingham, on the other hand, give you the facts about the lightest metal that can be put to practical use. YouTube link
Posted March 19, 2012
Helicopter shaken apart:
The voiceover on this video provides some details on how this happens. If there is something out of balance in the rotors, putting the craft down on the ground can make it worse, because the skids push down on the ground and the ground pushes back up on the skids. Newton's third law is not always our friend. YouTube link
Posted March 12, 2012
Self-leveling pool table:
It hadn't occurred to me that people would want to play pool while on a cruise ship, but if you are going to do so, this is what you need. This could be a great video to talk about relative motion since the table is tilting compared to the ship, but is remaining level compared to the Earth. YouTube link
Posted March 5, 2012
Solar tornado:
With the tornado outbreak in the midwest in late February (which has carried over into March), this video of similar vortices on the Sun caught my eye. Of course the scale (in time and distance) is very different, as this video compresses 30 hours of data into just over a minute, and these swirls are many many times larger than tornados on the Earth. YouTube link
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Jacob Clark Blickenstaff is teacher education programs manager for the American Physical Society.