Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Video version of the periodic table!

I know, I know.

Not many of us spend a lot of time in A&P going over basic chemistry.

I usually go over the essential concepts from inorganic chemistry, what's an ion, what's pH, polar and nonpolar covalent bonds . . . and then some essential facts about the major classes of biomolecules encountered in A&P.

Very seldom do I spend any great time using the period table of elements, other than to point out where iron is, or hydrogen . . . or the fact that very few of the elements listed there even play a role in human biology . . . and usually just because there happens to be a big honking periodic table on my classroom wall.

But I do occasionally stress the particular and peculiar characteristics of certain elements. For example, I'd love to have a balloon full of hydrogen with me to show how light it is . . . and a match to show how explosive it is. But that'd be impractical for several reasons . . . including the fact that I simply don't want to spend a lot of time on a small point.

Now I have another option. The University of Nottingham has a Periodic Table of Videos available FREE online. I can access any of the short videos to use in my class . . . or I can link to them for my students to access.

Each video is short . . . and you could simply use the few seconds you need.

And because the videos are posted at YouTube, you could embed a video or two in one of your webpages. [NOTE: To learn how to embed YouTube videos visit the YouTube page at The A&P Professor website.]

This collection is probably a lot more useful for a chemistry course . . . but you might find one or two uses in your A&P course.

Here's a sample:

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