No Equations! The First Rule of Science Out Loud

A new season of Science Out Loud, an original web series produced by MIT students and alumni, is now online. The audience is middle and high school students. The idea is to bring scientific concepts to life through experiments and demos, not chalkboards and equations. It’s bringing Mens et Manus to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subjects.

So how do viewers learn? In one example, the choose-your-own chemistry adventure gives viewers the opportunity to click through the video to change the ingredients of a chemical reaction and create the best foam explosion.

Other short video topics:

• MIT Explains: How to Make a Video Game
• The Science of Warp Drives
• What Is a Fractal (and What Are They Good for)?
• Why Can We Regrow a Liver (But Not a Limb)?
• How Do Ships Float?

The video series is part of MIT+K12 Videos, an educational outreach program from the MIT Office of Digital Learning that uses original digital media and live programming to encourage lifelong learning. MIT students can host, write, research, produce, or edit as a volunteer or an Education Media Fellow. They get involved by pitching a video idea or enrolling in 20.219 (Becoming the Next Bill Nye), available to all in OpenCourseWare.

Visit OCW for the course materials for Becoming the Next Bill Nye

“K12 Videos gave me such a variety of practical experience,” says K12 Videos Educational Media Fellow Ceri Riley '16.

“Every project was different so I got to try out new skills—from producing and editing to animating and filming. It really acted as a springboard for me.” Post-graduation, Riley is already working for SciShow, a popular science channel on YouTube, according to an MIT News article.

Check out the Science Out Loud playlist of two-five minute videos.