Tag Archives: education

Science Videos That Use Electronic White Boards

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Many of you may have seen the math lesson videos (e.g., by Khan Academy), which employ an electronic blackboard where the teacher works through a math problem, drawing onscreen, step by step (not sure what the Queen of England has to do with math, but whatever….).

Or you may have seen science videos that employed an electronic whiteboard, and the narrator draws text or images on screen while talking.  The video below illustrates this approach, which can be effective at getting a science concept across in an entertaining manner.

Why do videos done with electronic blackboards or whiteboards work so well?

They engage the viewer.  Seeing someone drawing or writing on screen makes the viewer feel as if there is more of a connection with the narrator, and the experience feels somewhat participatory.  It’s almost as if we are looking over their shoulder as they explain the material to us.

They have constant movement.  The continual movement of the electronic pen draws the eye and makes the viewer feel that something new is being revealed in a relatively rapid manner (which as we’ve discussed previously, is a key ingredient for a successful video).

They focus the viewer’s attention on the information being discussed.  When the narrator appears on screen, the viewer may be distracted from what is being described.  The viewer may be looking at how the person is dressed or their mannerisms, instead of the focus of the video.  With the electronic white/black board, there is nothing to distract from the information, at least visually.

They are different from the traditional video.  Not that many people have figured out how to do these or have decided they are worth the effort.  Consequently, those who use this approach have a better chance of creating something unique.

I find the experience of watching such videos strangely satisfying….but then, I was always an attentive student who hung on every word my teachers spoke.  The video narrator is anonymous (we can’t see them), yet the experience is very intimate, as if the narrator is talking only to us and showing us something really cool.

For the scientist videographer, doing a video with an electronic white board has several advantages, in addition to the one mentioned above about allowing you to create something different and that will stand out from other science videos.

One big advantage is the huge flexibility it provides in creating content for your video.  You don’t need to worry about finding a public domain image or footage of the earth, the moon, and the sun to talk about tides, for example.  Just draw three spheres on the white board and label them “earth” “moon”, and “sun”.  You don’t have to travel to a seashore to film the tide moving in and out of a bay; just draw a shoreline and waterline on your white board.  As the video above shows, it’s possible to illustrate a very complex topic drawing simple stick figures.  So if that is the level of your drawing ability; never fear; you can still use a white board.

Another advantage is not having to find people for your film or convince them to appear on camera.  Just draw a stick figure and label it.  The viewer will accept it, as we saw in a previous post (Bully Triangles and Terrified Circles).  If you have some talent at drawing (and many scientists do), then this technique can be really useful to you.  Those of you who are professors or instructors are already accustomed to drawing on a real blackboard, even drawing elaborate illustrations of organisms and other biological objects.  Engineers are especially capable of drawing diagrams, models, and other illustrations.

The electronic white board also allows you to remain off camera while narrating.  Some of you may be reluctant to appear on camera or have a fear of the camera.  Don’t let this stop you from participating in your own video.  With a bit of practice, you can learn to narrate while drawing, especially if you have a script at hand (although I’ve found that once you get started, you stop relying on notes and simply become immersed in explaining your material).  When you don’t appear on camera, you don’t have to worry about your appearance when creating your videos.  You can do a video in your pajamas if you want.

The biggest drawback to the electronic white/black board technique is that it takes a bit more planning and practice at drawing and narrating at the same time.  However, like everything else in videography, once you work out the method and apply it a couple of times, it becomes second nature.  You may also need some software (Photoshop, Screenflow) and an electronic drawing tablet to make this method work smoothly.

The electronic white/black board approach won’t work for all science videos, but is just another tool in the scientist videographer’s toolbox.  Even if your project can’t be done entirely with this approach, you might employ it to illustrate a specific concept within a larger video.

So exactly how do people create videos using a white/black board?  In an upcoming tutorial, I’ll show a relatively easy way to do this.

Can Plants Move?

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Here are a few videos that answer that question.  These are good examples of footage that one might use to illustrate plant “tropisms”.

The first video shows the rapid movement of a carnivorous plant, Drosera glanduligera (sundew), from Australia, captured with a high-speed camera.  The video is my compilation of footage posted online in the journal PLOSone with the article describing the phenomenon (access article here). This species has two types of tentacles, one with the sticky globules, which trap anything touching them, and non-sticky tentacles that fling insect passersby towards the center of the rosette where it gets stuck to sticky tentacles that then slowly pull the insect toward the area where it will be digested.  That flinging movement is one of the fastest trapping mechanisms found in the plant kingdom.  The speed is actually amazing when you think about it….this is a plant, not an animal with rapid-fire muscles.

For best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window).

By the way, I put together the video above in iMovie using the downloadable images and video footage offered on the open access article in the journal PLOSone.  All such images published there are under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which means that anyone can use them without permission as long as the creators (authors) are acknowledged.  This is a good example of how the scientist videographer can use published footage, images, and graphics to create a video about a science topic and without paying for or having to acquire the permission of the creators.

The second video is a time-lapse sequence showing Cuscuta reflexa (dodder) growing on another plant (Perlagonium sp.) in a phytotron in Norway.  This type of plant is a parasite on other plants and can actually insert root-like structures called “haustoria” into the host plant.  Once established and drawing resources from the host plant, the dodder’s roots growing in the soil eventually die, and the parasite then relies on its host for water and nutrients.  The sequence in this video was shot over 14 days with each second equaling about 40 minutes of growth.  Thanks to Joy Marburger for the link.

The last video is one based on footage I shot in Sri Lanka of a “sensitive plant” I came across in a parking lot.  Using that (admittedly shaky) footage plus some text explanation, I created a short video about seismonastic movement in plants.

It’s difficult sometimes to make sessile organisms such as plants interesting to the general public because, well, they don’t move or appear to do anything interesting.  However, the scientist videographer can use this fact to advantage and use footage that shows something unexpected, which as we’ve learned, is one feature of a video that appeals to viewers. Most people don’t expect plants to move, so videos about plant tropisms, which challenge that perception, can be quite effective.  Moreover, adding the question as to why plants might have evolved movement raises the viewer’s curiosity and perhaps stimulates them to learn more.

Another point I’d like to make here is that I was able to produce these videos in a very short time. The sensitive plant video took about five minutes to pull together and another five minutes or so to export and upload to YouTube.  The video on the carnivorous plant took somewhat longer (about 30 min), mainly because I had to read the paper to understand what the video footage and other images were demonstrating.

With a small effort, using your own or published (but public domain) images and video clips, you also can create short, informative videos.

How to Use NASA Multimedia in Your Science Videos

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The US space agency, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is a great resource for a variety of images and footage of the earth and its atmosphere, as well as various processes affecting them.  For example, their multimedia gallery of videos contains footage showing ocean currents, hurricanes, solar flares, temperature anomalies, time-lapse images shot from the space station, phytoplankton blooms, and much more.

Here are a few examples of videos in the NASA multimedia gallery that the scientist videographer might find useful for a video project:

Perpetual Ocean:

Solar Flare:

Hurricane Isaac transiting the Gulf of Mexico:

South America Fire Observations:

You can download these videos and because they are in the public domain can take segments from them for your video projects. For example, you might want to talk about the Gulf Stream and how this relates to something you are studying. You can easily download the video “Perpetual Ocean” (above) from the NASA video gallery and using a movie editing program, you can extract the footage that includes the Gulf Stream. Or you might want to talk about impacts of hurricanes on coastal habitats. There are several animations of hurricanes and cyclones as well as footage shot by NASA’s hurricane hunters that can be downloaded and used. Once in your movie editing program, you can then add voiceover and/or text to connect it to your topic.

Below is an example from one of my video projects in which I used two NASA animations together with my own images, footage, and voiceover to introduce a video on sea-level rise and wetlands.

CSI Meets The Abyss

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What happens when you put a pig carcass at the bottom of the ocean?  If you’ve ever wondered, check out this video created by Jackson Chu.  As you may know, pigs are used in forensic research as models for humans and in this study are helping scientists understand what happens to bodies that end up in the ocean.  The video is a time-lapse of the consumption and decay of the pig over several days.

The video by Chu is mainly the raw footage with a minimal text description marking the passage of time.  With a little effort, it could have been turned into a really nice video explaining the process of decay and how the work will aid criminologists.

A time-lapse also can be created with graphics, as in this next video showing all 2,053 nuclear explosions since 1945 on a world map:

Not all time-lapse deals with destruction, death and decay.  Here is one that shows the changes of a single oak tree over the course of a year:

One of the most entertaining types of science video involves time-lapse.  If you study a process that lends itself to time-lapse photography, you might want to consider using this approach for one of your videos.  Besides providing important information about change, it makes for fascinating viewing.

Create an Interactive Map to Illustrate Your Study Sites

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Have you wondered how people create and embed interactive maps into their websites like the one below?  These are quite useful in showing not only where you have been sampling, for example, but to also link text descriptions and photographs of each location that pop up in a box when the placemarker is selected on the map (select the “view in a larger map” and click on one of the placemarkers for an example).


View Flood 2011 Sampling Sites in a larger map

In addition to enhancing your website, these interactive maps might be incorporated into a video to show the locations of sites that will be described or where footage was shot.  In this tutorial, I show how to create such a personalized map using Google Maps, which is free (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window):