The Institute of Physics used to run “Paperclip Physics”; a competition where students had five minutes to present/teach a given topic in an interesting fashion.
This year they have replaced this competition with “Planet-Scicast”, where students have to put together a two and a half minute video-clip on any aspect of Science.
It’s a wonderful idea. Entries are closed for this year but I hope to encourage some of my own students to think about it over the Summer and enter next year. I know that I learned more Phyiscs in my first year of teaching than I did in the previous six years of preparing for exams. Hopefully students will benefit in a similar fashion.
In the clip above there is a wonderful moment when the student says
It takes 365 days for the Earth to orbit around the Sun, but 366 on a leap year.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to ask the class why this might be so? 🙂
Hats off to the teacher – it is wonderful teaching, and much more importantly, wonderful learning
Think for Yourself 