Canadian ingenuity on YouTube

Two Canadian projects using YouTube videos to teach math and science have been selected as finalists in the YouTube Next EDU Guru contest for innovative educational videos. YouTube created the contest to call attention to and encourage more educational content online. The Canadian entries display a whole new side of YouTube, far beyond cute kittens and Gangnam Style knock-offs.

AsapScience

AsapScience, a channel created by Mitchell Moffit and Greg Brown of Guelph, explains scientific ideas using animated images. Subjects they tackle include Motion Sickness: What is It? and Your Brain on Drugs: Marijuana. Their video below explains the science behind lucid dreaming:

Mathapptics

Kevin Cheung of Carleton University uses YouTube videos to explain math. His Mathapptics channel explores concepts such as linear algebra and ordered pairs to explain how math underlies the apps that we love.

It's been decades since my last math class, but I understood that.

Both Moffit and Cheung are taking part in a seminar at YouTube headquarters in California on Wednesday to exchange ideas with other educators. YouTube will choose a winner, who will ultimately work with the company to further develop and promote their online video channels.