Classhook video clips is a collection of short, vetted clips suitable for use in education across all ages. There is a completely free version which may be sufficient for primary school teachers, enabling them to find resources for use to explain various concepts or instigate discussions. The free version allows teachers to watch and use up to 20 clips per month, search and access all of the clips, create playlists, request new clips, and embed a single question in a clip. A single question may be used at the beginning to give a focus for the clips, or at the end to start a discussion.
I did a search for elementary age and soil, a set of 4 video clips were returned:
- Bill Guy, the science Guy: Soil lab “Bill Nye showcases the different types of soil in his lab. He explains and illustrates the soil profile (what soil would look like if you can dig into it and view it from the side) of each type. He also explains how soil and dust are created: from rocks and living creatures.”
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Turning the Desert into a Wasteland
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Erosion After Clear Cutting “Hoggish Greedily is clear-cutting a forest, which loosens the soil as there are no roots to hold the soil in place. The Planeteers take advantage of this and show Hoggish Greedily the effects of water erosion on loose dirt.” This clip is a 52-second long cartoon illustrating how deforestation can affect the earth! A perfect discussion starter.
- Pocahontas: Mine, Mine, Mine!
I have not watched all of these, but if they covered the different topics that I wanted to use in my science project on soil, I could add them all to a playlist to be called up any time without having to go through the search option each time. There are many playlists that have already been created by teachers that can be explored too. See the start of the Phonics playlist:
There is a lot of the search process that requests an upgrade; but, what is there and freely available may be useful – it certainly gives teachers a chance to try and evaluate it.
