Surviving the Screencast

The title is a little harsh, screencasting was pretty straight forward thanks to the tutelage of one Miss Emily. Save for an initial mic issue which Emily subsequently solved, the screencasts are going off without a hitch so far. I say "so far" because I have a whole series of them planned, eight total, and the students and I have finished three as of Friday, 12/11/09.

Here's what's going on... I teach a series of equations during second quarter in Geochemistry that have to do with Pascal's Principle (hydraulics) as well as the gas laws - Boyle's, Charles', and Gay-Lussac's Laws - which involve the behavior of gases during temperature, pressure, and volume changes. This year a number of students were absent during some of the instruction for these laws and equations. I found that either students were not coming in for extra help to catch up after school and I had to reteach the equations to students who did come in for help which takes quite a bit of time. Some students who were present during instruction also required one-on-one time with me to review the laws. So my idea for the webcast was to record with Smart Recorder myself and some of the seniors in Geochem (I got the idea from Jennifer - thanks!) solving these problems on Smart Notebook. The seniors were eager to make a webcast that allows them to be part of "virtual MHS" for a long time to come, so I really did not have a difficult time convincing them to participate. I put together four Pascal's Principle problems, two Boyle's Law problems, and one each of Charles' and Gay-Lussac's Laws problems. The students chose which problem they wanted to solve for the screencast. I prepared a general script for them to follow and they were given a copy of the problem to review. (Each student had already solved the problem they chose in past homework assignments.) Each screencast took about five minutes to "perform" and save to the district webcast folder. As it turns out, one student was ill and another out of town, so I had to step in to do two screencasts - and I am glad for the experience.

The screencasts can be found in the public folder - MHS - Science - Dierker or http://webcast.mariemontschools.org/. I have shared this experience with my some of my science department colleagues in case they would like to have their own students visit the webcasts or do something similar themselves.

I believe this series of screencasts will be an invaluable tool for students in the future for make-up. review, and study purposes.