I’ve recently been conversing with a couple of students that I had during the Covid year.  Both are in engineering at The Ohio State University.  I had both when they were juniors in Physics, and again, as seniors in AP Physics 2.  Since I knew them prior to the Covid year, I didn’t need to introduce myself.  For students with whom I was not acquainted, it seemed important to produce a video that gave them some sense of Physics and how I approached the course. 

Both videos were produced a couple of weeks before school started.  I had time, but not much of an idea how to edit videos.

For the Physics students, I wanted to get across the fun and wonder of Physics.  In an online course, it’s hard to communicate the twin virtues of fun and dangerous.  For the intro video, I tried to get across the fun, my unconventional nature and that diligent effort would be expected.

For AP students, the purpose of the introduction was different.  AP Physics 2 students are smart and they’ve had a year of physics.  They know the score.  It’s important that they believe that even if I’m not smarter than them, at least I know physics better than they do.