{"id":4695,"date":"2013-05-21T10:18:19","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T09:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/?p=4695"},"modified":"2024-04-07T08:20:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T07:20:44","slug":"chemistry-teaching-videos-1981-1993","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/chemistry-teaching-videos-1981-1993\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemistry Teaching Videos: 1981-1993"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you were studying Chemistry at Imperial College in the early 1980’s you would almost certainly have come across the series of teaching videos that we made. These were designed to provide a single definitive version of classic experiments carried out in the labs.\u00a0 The way that it worked was that during a lab period students would have a number of ‘demonstrators’ who positioned themselves around the lab. They would then proceed to show the undergrads the way to achieve what was needed of them during the session. This was deemed to have flaws when it was discovered that very slightly different versions were actually being demonstrated. So, colleagues in the Chemistry Department asked for some of the experiments and also the techniques required, to be captured on video. These videos would then be made available to the students in the college library, prior to the lab session day and also at the start of the actual lab session via video players located around the lab. Starting 32 years ago, from 1981 to 1993,\u00a0 11 of these classic experiment videos were made. Two of these: ‘Recrystallisation’ and ‘Using an Oil Vacuum Pump’ are seen on this page, and are for archive interest only.<\/p>\n

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Making them was not always so easy. To capture the experiments we needed to be able to record, as much as possible, in ‘real time’. That is, record the action without stopping or having to then edit later. We needed to be able to try and capture what would have been demonstrated live in the lab. Also, when an experiment had started, it couldn’t always be stopped on a whim from me because I couldn’t get a good camera view! So, we had to be able to record with several cameras and this meant shooting in the College TV Studio** where we had three cameras available. Shooting this way meant we could, as much as possible, run in real time; if we had rehearsed what was going to happen. So, using three cameras we were able to plan ‘blocks’ of the experiments that could be recorded before we had to stop and reset cameras etc<\/p>\n

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