Meet the Global Ambassador of IB Chemistry

Mr. Thornley’s screen capture, showing his YouTube views and minutes watched in the past two years: “the wild oscillations correspond to summer exams, the minor ones to weeks” (image: R. Thornley).

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I am a chemistry teacher at the United Nations International School (UNIS) in New York. My physical classroom holds a maximum of 24 students, plus one in the fume cupboard and the occasional one hanging from a light fitting.

My virtual classroom holds tens of thousands of youngsters on a busy day—but a few thousand normally.

I have two disparate and “uncool” talents. I am rather good at chemistry and video games. Neither of these I remember cultivating, and given the choice, I probably would have done something different (physics and guitar would be my preference now). But chemistry has been good to me, and I have wandered the world teaching it: London, New York, San Francisco, Costa del Sol, Beirut, Bangkok, and Ankara.

It is also getting easier since, frankly, not that many other people out there seem to want to do it.

Like many institutions, UNIS managed to find a bit of time for teachers to dabble in online creativity. But unlike many other institutions, we found ourselves a niche; Brian Kahn, the head of UNIS science department, created the Science Learning Project of which my work is an offshoot.

In short, there is now an entire IB course online in video format, for free, and made by an experienced teacher using video games, augmented reality, stop motion, 3D animations, British humor, and his understanding that for some, chemistry may be hard to love.

Generic courses will not do, by the way. And with all respect to the elephant in the room, the fact that this “has been done before,” recall that Sal Khan (of Khan Academy fame) has not taught chemistry for 20 years; there is no substitute for that!

The epic task took me two and a half years, making one video every three days as I went. That, I thought, would be that—just watch the money roll in! But I felt a bit guilty, and gave it away to charity. Know that, if you should watch an ad on my videos, I stand to make a cool US$0.02 (before tax). Nobody watches the ads.

Three things have since happened, all of which surprised me greatly.

First, I learned that there is a real need out there because so many teachers are new to the subject and the foibles of the IB. Teaching is hard, and we all need a few years to get decent at it; I needed about five, which is more than most. My channel is used by numerous starting teachers; I know this because they tell me, and their students tell me, that their lessons now align closely with mine. In some ways, it is my beau geste to those who suffered as I learned to teach.

Secondly, I came to realize that there is still space in the market for a motivated teacher to make a difference globally. My channel is more popular than the IB itself; the Royal Society of Chemistry; and soon, Scientology! I find this astounding, and I attribute it to the specific nature of the channel—IB (and not generic) chemistry. Also, I do not waffle. At any rate the frontier is still open and, at this writing, there is no other full IB course on YouTube or iTunesU.

Thirdly, I have now become a “C+” YouTube celebrity. Students in a school in India walk around doing impressions of me—“smashing.” Ex-students tell me that they have sat in university classes feeling an odd sense of déjà vu as the lecturer shows my videos. A delightful lady flew in from Africa for brunch. A video game company tweeted about me, and a popular Korean music website put the channel on their front page—as did Guardian Education, all joking aside.

I have had offers of marriage, and had my work stolen wholesale! The channel has thus introduced a little spice into my life and, truth be told, made me more employable. As for now, back to reality in New York. Please excuse me, while I check my email and help some kid in Kenya with his YouTube homework.

Mr. Thornley is a self-described “veteran of eight schools, six countries, two detentions by militants and one coup.” Learn more at http://socialblade.com/youtube/user/richthornley, and http://www.youtube.com/richthornley.

Please note also that there is a “sister channel,” for IB Biology: https://www.youtube.com/SCScienceVid.

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