BBC Brit’s Biggest Bangs is a series of interactive videos that demonstrate how chemicals react with each other. The videos are YouTube videos that take advantage of YouTube’s annotations feature.

BBC Brit’s Biggest Bangs series starts with an introductory video in which you can choose one of eight chemicals to see how it reacts with another of the eight on the list. The chemicals featured are hydrogen, sodium, sulfur, nitrogen, chlorine, oxygen, iodine, and aluminum. After making chemical selections students are directed to a video that shows what happens when their chosen chemicals are combined. After each reaction video students have the option to return to the start and choose different chemicals.

Applications for Education

While not nearly as engaging as making these reactions in a school lab, BBC Brit’s Biggest Bangs is a heck of a lot safer and cheaper way for students to see how chemicals interact with each other. For more virtual chemistry lessons, take a look at these free apps and sites.

H/T to Danny Nicholson for sharing this last week.