Website: The Futures Channel
Resource Review
Description
The Futures Channel is a US website which presents educational mini-documentaries and aims to show students how the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) they learn at school relate to the "real world" and some of the exciting careers available to them. Most of the movie clips are from one to ten minutes in length, with a few up to twenty minutes duration. Some of the documentaries are free-to-view although the majority are subscription-based.
Curriculum / Qualifications links
While this website is aimed at Technology, Science, and Maths teachers, the documentaries are also relevant for those teaching other areas of The New Zealand Curriculum such as Graphics, Art, History, Geography, Economics and Music.
Content
The documentaries are listed under the headings: Agriculture, Animals, Architecture, Art and Music, Business and Commerce, Design, Earth Science, Environmental issues, Movie close-ups, Science and Technology, Space Science, Sports and Transportation.
The Special Features section contains movie clips on Behind the sound of The Futures Channel and Advanced space concepts. The STEM resources section includes (text) interviews with educationalists, as does the News and Reviews section – which also has articles about education in the age of technology.
Ease of use
Although it isn't obvious in the first visit as to what is contained in some sections, the site is straight-forward and easy to navigate.
Rating
Although many of the movie clips are subscription-based, there is sufficient useful information in the free-to-view examples to make visiting the site worthwhile.
Queen Margaret College Technology teacher Barbara Knight, who has used the documentaries with her Year 13 Materials Technology class, says that they have been good to show as "little windows into the real world of what people do in product and design development in a wide variety of fields. The students really enjoyed it, and it was good to have a different kind of teaching stimulus resource that they could also access from home".
Accessibility
The free documentaries and text articles are easily accessed. A subscription giving teachers and students access to all film content, guiding questions and additional resources, costs $US 1,595 but there is a range of subscription options so possibly a cheaper alternative. There are also DVDs available for purchase online. A free weekly newsletter informs recipients of web updates.
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