Customer Reviews

The Standard Deviants - Rockin' World of Geology - Part 1 [VHS]

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There may be some confusion about the purpose of Standard Deviant videos. The stated goal of this series is "enhancing the academic SUCCESS of students everywhere". Each video is designed with the college student in mind, for review in preparation for exams, or as an introduction to a tough subject of study, and they accomplish that purpose AMAZINGLY well!

These excellent overviews present important concepts in a memorable way. Yes, they can be silly and irreverent (hence the series title, a delightful play on words) but it's all to make your retention stronger during those stressful testing moments. Videos cover lots of crucial material fast, with the idea that you can replay any section as often as you need to, until you "get it". All videos contain study techniques and reference cards to make test prep easier.

These videos are NOT designed to be used by an instructor as "additional support material" to be shown to their students, either in the classroom or out. They do not have collections of demonstrations, nor do they provide examples or explanations a good teacher wouldn't have given already. They are a STUDY TOOL, not a TEACHING TOOL. With all honor due to the previous reviewer, rating these useful and effective videos as a poor teaching tool is like rating an orange badly because it doesn't taste like an apple. It's unfair and misleading.

Oh man, this video is the pits. If you want to lose street cred with your class then this is the one to show. It's trying to be like MTV but you end up just feeling really bad for the actors. If you can get past the gut instinct of, "What? What's happening here? Why are they sitting on a bunch of primary colored shapes? Who's that guy with the beard supposed to be?" then you might learn some geology but don't count on your students being so open minded. This video says it was made with college students in mind but take my advice and don't show it to any child who's learned to be sarcastic.