Today we’d like to introduce you to Todd Zadow
Hi Todd, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started my teaching career back in 2012 at a large local secondary school teaching science and Japanese. I immediately realised that I’d found my calling, after having explored several other career paths when I completed my degree such as medicine, physiotherapy, and the air force. I was drawn towards the personal side of teaching and the spontaneity of every day. As a teacher I’ve always focused on building positive rapport and relationships with my students and, in turn, establishing a classroom environment that they look forward to coming to and learning in. A few years into my career I found that I had created some effective, relatable examples to help explain particular concepts in science, but that I was also having to repeat these same examples to multiple classes on a regular basis. I figured that if I simply set aside some time to record myself explaining some of these topics, such as identifying scientific variables and how to write a science report, my students could watch these videos in their own time to consolidate their learning. So I started my own YouTube channel, uploaded a couple of lessons, and shared them with my students. Fast forward a semester and I found myself hearing my own voice echoing throughout the corridors of our science building, as other science teachers were using my videos in their classes. Needless to say this was a very strange experience! I continued creating lessons, recording experiments and explaining demonstrations, and the traffic for the channel continued to increase well beyond my own school. Soon I had a worldwide audience of over 50 countries. Then COVID-19 and remote learning came along, which brought with it many challenges for educators. The frequency of teachers embedding my videos on their online resources and showing them to their online classes skyrocketed, and I’m humbled that my lessons hopefully helped so many other teachers out there who were desperate to try to keep the momentum going with their students and continue their mission of science education. Since then, I’ve performed live shows, travelled to the Kennedy Space Center, met inspirational science communicators such as Richard Dawkins (evolutionary biologist), Adam Savage (Mythbusters) and Michael Stevens (VSauce), and the channel has just surpassed 6 million views. I’ve continued to grow the channel not only on YouTube but through other social media such as Instagram and TikTok as well, and these short-form video platforms have been fantastic avenues for sharing clips of experiments in my classes that serve as ideas for other science teachers, as well as being a lot of fun for my own students.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Overall the YouTube experience has been a really positive one. The biggest challenges along the way have really just been great learning opportunities for me as the channel has grown. This has involved upskilling myself in the way that I film and edit my content, as well as how I market the channel and all of the behind-the-scenes tweaking to try to understand the YouTube algorithm.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about High School Science 101?
My YouTube channel, which has now expanded to a wider brand across multiple social media streams, is centered around providing science students – either at school or indeed at university – with free lessons, demonstrations and experiments to enhance their understanding of core scientific concepts. In doing so, it also contributes to the collaborative science teaching community by providing ideas for other science teachers to enhance their pedagogy. Inspired by successful communicators such as Khan Academy and Tyler DeWitt, my core focus is on creating concise, engaging and relatable content that takes advantage of the opportunities for visual aids in enhancing the lessons. I try to avoid as much jargon as possible, making my lessons accessible to anyone regardless of their depth of science knowledge.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me is that my lessons are helping others develop an interest in and, hopefully, a passion for the field of science. I receive messages every day from students – and teachers – who are grateful that my lessons have helped them understanding a concept a bit better, or that it’s helped them pass an assessment in what was previously a difficult topic for them. This is honestly what makes the whole venture so worthwhile.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highschoolscience101
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/highschoolscience101
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@highschoolscience101
