There are two very useful 15 minute clips on Teachers TV, exploring how more creative learning contexts can be used in primary science lessons. They also seek to show how collaborative work between teachers in school can lead to useful continuing professional development.

The resource aims to demonstrate:

1. The benefits of creative learning contexts
2. How cross-curricular contexts can improve learning
3. How collaborative work between teachers can aid their professional development

To access the videos, click on these links:

KS1/2 Science – As Easy As CPD 1

KS1/2 Science – As Easy As CPD 2

There are many more science resources on Teachers TV. Take a look!

Following on from a post on the Whiteboard Blog a few weeks back about Here Comes Science – the CD of Science songs from the band They Might be Giants, here’s another song from the CD. (via @BadAstronomer).

The song is called “Science is Real” and it would a good introduction to Science, or a good way to start off a discussion on scientific thinking

The CD is available from Amazon.com (and Amazon UK on import)

The Class of 09′s (almost) Organised Display of Diet Coke and Mentos….

The Science Bit can be found here.

Fancy going for the world record? Info here. 504 simultaneous geysers

Here’s a great site for using songs to help the teaching of Science in the classroom. Simple Science has videos for many KS2 topics with songs, and also explanations of some of the concepts.

Videos are hosted on Vimeo, which means they are higher quality than YouTube, and also means they are accessible in schools that have blocked YouTube.

The videos are free on the website, but if you like them, you might want to buy a DVD of the high quality versions.

4F Electricity Song from Simple Science on Vimeo.

The full video in all its glory

Diet coke and mentos from Danny Nicholson on Vimeo.

As streamed live onto the Internet via Qik.com

If you want to use YouTube videos and your school blocks access to them, then you need to be able to save them at home, and bring them into school. There are many different ways available now to save a youtube file locally.

This Script can be added to the toolbar of the Firefox web browser. When you see a video you want to save, click the button and then the page changes to allow you to save the file as an .mp4 video file.

All the instructions are on the page and it seems relatively straightforward. The thing to remember is to change the filename from .htm to .mp4 when you save it.

Another good guide to saving videos can be found on the Teachers Love Smartboards blog.

Also try

Converttube: http://www.converttube.com/

YouConvertIt: http://www.youconvertit.com/OnlineVideo.aspx

Zamzar http://www.zamzar.com/

Miro: http://www.getmiro.com/

Video Downloader: Fast Video Downloader

Obviously it goes without saying that you need to be aware that you may be infringing copyright by storing these clips – but this does provide a good workaround for those teachers who want to show a YouTube clip in a lesson where the school have blocked YouTube access.