Photo credit: Reach for it. (Sérgio Bernardino/Creative Commons)

The 100 Best (Free) Science Documentaries

You know and I know that sometimes the best way to present some material is through the magic of video.  This is especially true when you want to or need to dig deeper into a particular topic, but just don’t have the class time to dedicate to a week’s worth of lessons.

OnlineUniversities.com has put together a list of 100 free science documentaries that are all available online through various video hosts.  (I hesitate to use the word “best” myself, since it’s a rather relative term.)  The documentaries are divided by subject, to help you find just what you need and most are full length features like Super Size Me, An Inconvenient Truth, and Sicko!

Choose from:

• Health and Medicine (11 videos)
• Drugs (6 videos)
• Genetics (10 videos)
• Evolution and Biological History (12 videos)
• Physics (10 videos)
• Environment (10 videos)
• Geology (9 videos)
• Space (12 videos)
• Technology (5 videos)
• Nature (12 videos)
• Miscellaneous Topics (3 videos)

The list is completely annotated, so you can easily see what the documentary will cover.  As always, however, remember to preview these to make sure they are appropriate for your class. In addition, make sure that you will have the capability to show them in your class.

Almost any computer with a basic video program (such as Windows Media Player, Quicktime, or Flash) will be able to handle these with a projector and speakers for viewing.  Some are hosted on sites that may potentially be blocked by a filtering program at school, so you might have to download them first for playback.  You can read about how to do this in my Downloading Streaming Video post.