Fourth Blog Video Tutorial on Floating and Sinking

Class: IV

Subject: Science

Topic: Floating and Sinking

 In this blog, I will be focusing on teaching the class four students about floating and sinking under the subject, Science. I have used the video tutorial on floating and sinking as the ICT tool for teaching my students. I was taught on using the software such as Camtasia Studio in the class in order to record the screen and power point presentation and also to edit various videos. I employed the 8^th version of Camtasia Studio to make a video tutorial based on my topic. It was very fascinating and a new encounter for me to survey the features accessible in the software. In the following write up I will be telling on how I created the video tutorial and how to use the material in the class.

 

Creation of the teaching material

If I talk about creating the video tutorial on floating and sinking is firstly I think out on designing a power point presentation. I referred the teacher’s manual guide to range the content of the topic appropriately in the presentation. After finishing with all these brain storming and mind mapping on the topic, I begin preparing the PowerPoint presentation. As usual, the presentation was prepared on a blank slide where I wrote greetings for my video tutorial as ‘Welcome to the video tutorial’ and followed by the title of the lesson as ‘Floating and Sinking’ on another blank slide. I also made sure to include the class level and subject. I used the wood type of as a background for all the slides. I used the text font Arial Black for topic/sub-topic and Arial for other text throughout the slides. 

I mentioned the main objective of the lesson that was to teach the students on how floating and sinking happens/ occur by using available materials. I thought that just simply reflecting the instructions on the slides will not be enough so I worked on coming up with self-made video for the demonstration. I gathered all the required materials to drop in the water as to see whether it floats or sinks. It was not comfortable to make the video all by self so I had to seek help from my sister to be a camera man. I shot the video while demonstrating the floating and sinking. After that I point out the overview of the lesson using the SmartArt graphic (i.e. intense effect). To insert that intense effect graphic, I went to the Insert first then selected the SmartArt tools from which I utilized the intense effect graphic.  The rest of the slides, I wrote the main points with related to the topic. When comes to the definition of floating and sinking it was little challenging for me to portray the information in one slide. I used short demonstration video to make the definition understandable.

After having prepared the video I insert the video in the Camtasia after the activity instruction has been provided. I used the real materials for the demonstration of floating and sinking (which was made by myself) in the presentation in order convey the concrete concept of floating and sinking. To make the concept clearer, I insert the images of the materials found in our locality. The images were not at all borrowed or downloaded but it was solely captured by me. These were all about how I prepared the power presentation. My power point presentation has total of fourteen slides.

When done with creating the power point presentation, I had to record the narration of the presentation by showing my face. I used the video editing software called Camtasia Studio. The Camtasia studio software that I used was the eighth version of it, which was quite advanced and latest too. The software was interlinked with power point presentation so I did not have to go separately and open the software. Instead I went to the Add-Ins pane in the power presentation only where I had the option to record the narration of slides. Before I recorded the narration, I selected the icon of record audio and record camera. I had my script all set for the narration and I had the final narration of the presentation after several trials. Then I edited the recording in the software. I found the software very productive for video editors.

I made use of all the features provided by the Camtasia software. I edited my video by cutting the unwanted parts of the video. I split the video when I wanted to add some transitions and video. I made use of call outs at last for my name in the video tutorial. After doing the necessary editions of the video, I selected the option produce and share to produce the finalized video. When I clicked the produce and share option, a dialog box appeared where I renamed the video file of my choice and selected the location of the file too. So these are all about how I could come up with a simple and effective video tutorial on rain and rain gauge.

Activity: There is one activity for the students. Instructions for the activities are clearly directed in the video tutorial. 

Instructions for the use of content-based material

I will be using the content-based material i.e. the video tutorial on floating and sinking throughout the three stages of the lesson that are lesson introduction, lesson development and lesson conclusion. Instead of me lecturing everything in the classroom, the video tutorial will serve all the feature of the lesson. The video tutorial incorporate the introduction of the lesson by connecting the prior knowledge of the students with the topic, the clear description on the contents of the lesson, some activities for the students and the conclusion of the lesson.

The video tutorial will be showed to the entire students in a classroom; where students will be able to grasp the concept of Floating and sinking. The short video for demonstration was using of locally available materials which is the part of the video tutorial will guide the students to identify the different materials at home and also complete the activities.  Moreover the combination of the texts, pictures and video in my video tutorial will surely thrilled my students to learn. The video tutorial can also be used by the students to watch it at home whenever they want to. Students can use the feature of forward, backward, rewind, pause and resume when watching the video tutorial.

Through the video tutorial, I expect my students of class four to:

—  Name at least five objects that will sink and five objects that will float correctly after the teaching.

—  Design an experiment to check which objects float and which objects sink after teacher’s explanation.

·     In order to make proper use of this content based-material, both the teacher and students must be ready with a projector and a laptop in a classroom. Probably the IT labs/rooms can be used to exhibit the video to the students due to easy accessibility of the projectors and computers in the room. Without the presence of a projector, it will be difficult to exhibit the video tutorial to all the students. Projector will help to present the video very clearly and visibly.