Khan Academy

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Introduction

Khan Academy is a free website with educational videos covering a range of topics including history, economics, maths and science. The science section of Khan Academy is vast and covers many topics in physics, chemistry and biology. A major advantage of the website is that it allows students to work through content at their own pace. When they're in class they have to keep up with the pace that the teacher sets, but in Khan Academy they can pause videos and go back to any sections they didn't understand and view them again.

In addition to educational videos, there's an entire section below each video which gives users an opportunity to ask questions and quiz each other. There's also a section called "tips and thanks" under each video where many users have linked to educational games and sites that may be useful for furthering students' knowledge.

These videos could be used in conjunction with or instead of direct classroom instruction. By using this "flipped classroom" approach, there is more time for students to undertake practical work and they can work through the content at their own pace for homework, perhaps giving them a greater understanding of the content then they would have otherwise. If used in conjunction with traditional classroom teaching, Khan Academy provides a way for students to revisit and revise information they may have forgotten, didn't understand in class or just want to have a fresh perspective on.


Instructions

To begin using Khan Academy, click the link at the top of the post. This will take you to the Khan Academy homepage. The site recommends that you sign up in order to get extra features such as progress monitoring and interactive revision exercises, but this is not needed to unlock the basic content of the site.

To view the lessons, click the "Subjects" tab at the top of the screen and select your subject. I clicked science > biology

There are four biology topics that are covered. I clicked on "cellular and molecular biology".

From here, all the content in cellular and molecular biology is displayed. I chose to look at an overview of organelles.

As you can see here, there is the main video section of the page and also the questions and comments section below. The videos are hosted through youtube and therefore can be embedded in the online learning system of a teacher's choice, if they choose to do so.

Example in class
An example of how to use Khan academy would be as the flipped classroom. Take for example a lesson on states of matter. Instead of covering this material in class, the students could watch one or two videos at home and learn the theory, then perform an experiment during class that further expanded their knowledge or allowed them to see the theory in action.

Outcomes Covered
Stage 4
SC4-16CW: a student describes the observed properties and behaviour of matter, using scientific models and theories about the motion and arrangement of particles
CW1 The properties of the different states of matter can be explained in terms of the motion
and arrangement of particles. (ACSSU151)
a. describe the behaviour of matter in terms of particles that are continuously moving and interacting
b. relate an increase or decrease in the amount of heat energy possessed by particles to changes in particle movement
c. use a simple particle model to predict the effect of adding or removing heat on different states of matter
d. relate changes in the physical properties of matter to heat energy and particle movement that occur during observations of evaporation, condensation, boiling, melting and freezing
e. explain density in terms of a simple particle model
f. identify the benefits and limitations of using models to explain the properties of solids, liquids and gases