What Sky High Science Teacher Actually Is
Sky High Science is an online platform that delivers animated science lessons, mostly aimed at middle school and high school students. The "teacher" portion is the animated presenter — a character who walks through topics like chemistry, biology, physics, and earth science using simple visuals. It's not a live instructor or a full curriculum, more like a video library you supplement your existing science class with. I've used their videos in a classroom setting for years, usually as a secondary explanation when students needed a different framing of a topic. The content covers standard topics: the periodic table, cell structure, Newton's laws, the water cycle, and so on. Each lesson runs between 3 and 8 minutes. The pacing is fast by design — they don't dwell on derivations or deep explanations. If you're looking for rigorous coverage, you'll need to pair it with something else.
Getting Started With Sky High Science Teacher
The site is free to watch without creating an account. You go to skyhighscience.com and browse by subject or grade level. The videos are embedded directly — no download link is needed for normal use. If you need offline access, that's a paid tier. Students in my school who had unreliable internet at home used the downloadable versions, which cost around $5 a month per student. That was manageable for our department budget. To use it in a class, just pull up the relevant video during a lesson. I usually project it, pause at key moments, and ask students to note one thing they heard that matched what we'd covered in the textbook. The mismatched details — and they do exist — become discussion points. This takes about 10 to 15 minutes of class time per video. I ran into a problem last year when I tried to use their periodic table lesson with AP Chemistry students. The video presented ion formation as if atoms "want" to gain or lose electrons to reach stability. My AP kids pushed back because the language was misleading at that level — it reinforced the misconception that atoms have intention. I moved on to a short segment from a different source that addressed electron affinity and lattice energy properly, then came back to Sky High's video as a starting point only. Lesson: their language is calibrated for beginners, not advanced students.
One thing that catches people off guard is the quality variance across subjects. Their chemistry and biology videos are solid — accurate, well-paced, and visually clear. The physics section is where you'll notice gaps. They cover the right topics but often skip the mathematical framework. If a student watches only Sky High for physics, they'll understand the concepts but won't be able to solve problems. I always follow their physics videos with a worked example from a textbook or Khan Academy. That combination works about 80 percent of the time for building conceptual understanding, though the problem-solving component needs extra material. Another practical detail: the site occasionally has broken links or outdated videos. I've seen two or three chemistry videos reference the old IUPAC naming conventions without noting the change. It doesn't affect student comprehension much, but it's worth flagging if you're using the content for exam prep. Check the upload date on any video before assigning it. If it was posted before 2020, verify the content against current standards — some state testing frameworks shifted between 2019 and 2022, and the videos don't always keep up. The platform does offer worksheets and quizzes, but they're basic. I wouldn't rely on them for grading. They work fine as in-class practice or exit tickets, and they take about 5 minutes to assign. More useful is the search function — you can look up a specific topic and get a list of relevant videos. It's not perfect, but it cuts down browsing time significantly compared to scrolling through the subject menu.
Get the Full Details
If you're considering using this in a course, start by watching one video yourself before assigning it. Not every lesson will match your curriculum, and the ones that do vary in how well they align with your teaching style. Some teachers find the presenter's tone too casual for their classroom. Others appreciate it as a way to lower student anxiety around science topics. Both reactions are valid. The main limitation I see across the board is depth. These videos are designed for exposure and initial understanding, not mastery. A student who watches all the Sky High videos on a topic and nothing else will have a surface-level grasp. Add textbook reading, problem sets, and lab work, and the foundation holds. That's the model I use, and it's been consistent for the last several years. I also noticed that the mobile experience is decent but not optimized for tablets in landscape mode. If students are watching on iPads, they might need to rotate the screen manually. It's a minor issue but worth knowing before handing out devices in class.
