Eighth-grade science students Gratus Goodridge, left, and Jeffrey Balbuena work on projects about motion and forces under teacher Robert Rasmussen’s guidance.

CRANSTON

The lesson opens with the sound of drums and guitars. On the screen, a moon rises and forms the backdrop for a logo — Scapegoat Productions. Then the image fades, the music builds and the viewer is whisked into a classroom.

By now, it’s clear that this will be no ordinary lesson.

Narrating the piece is Robert Rasmussen, a 41-year-old Cranston middle school teacher who excels at bringing technology to the classroom and bringing lessons — via that same technology — to his students.

It’s hard not to be impressed with his “Forces of Motion” video, which delves into the forces of friction and gravity.

With catchy graphics and well-crafted scenes and a voice that exudes the calm of a seasoned TV reporter, he explains why a book slides only so far when it is tossed along the floor, why greater speed results in greater air resistance, how the gravitational pull between two objects depends on their mass and the distance between them.

No one asked Rasmussen to make the video, which can be seen on YouTube. He simply did it, thinking it might reinforce some of the concepts he was covering in class.

“Kids live online,” he said. “I figure if that’s where they’re going to be, that’s where I’ll go. If I can infiltrate their world a little bit, that’s one more chance for me to preach science to them.”

Rasmussen, who teaches eighth-grade science at Park View Middle School, does not see himself as an expert in computers or technology. His major at Rhode Island College was secondary education, with a concentration in general science.

But he has picked up bits and pieces along the way.

After graduating from Cranston High School East, he attended the New England Institute of Technology, studying video and radio.

Later, at Rhode Island College, he had a professor who made his students create Web sites of the sort that the future teachers might one day create for their own students.

“This was in the late 1990s, or early 2000s,” he said. “It was right on the bubble as things were starting to head so heavily into the digital age.”

He started teaching in 2002, and two years later, he attended his first Rhode Island Teacher Technology Initiative conference. There, he got a firsthand look at how technology can be brought into the classroom.

He made his first educational video two years later, when he couldn’t find the right videos to supplement his classroom lessons.

“I just got tired of looking and decided to do one on my own,” he said.

Now, with help from teachers and students and his wife and three children, he typically makes one or two a year, posting them on YouTube, the self-proclaimed most popular online video site in the world, as well as vimeo. He also posts lessons and assignments and class information on his own Web site at http://members.cox.net/pvsciteach/.

His students seem to be impressed, especially with the videos, which can be entertaining as well as informative. In the “Forces of Motion” piece, for instance, the teacher takes a couple of “planned falls” to demonstrate some of the scientific principles.

“They’re really educational and they’re really funny. It’s like a cross between both,” said Jennifer Mersereau, 14. “I think it’s cool that he does that. I never had a teacher that made videos of himself.”

Educators and operators of Web sites such as YouTube say Rasmussen is part of a growing trend. At the college level, more professors are videotaping and posting lectures, said Obadiah Greenberg, a strategic partner manager at YouTube. But others, such as Rasmussen, are making special pieces and posting those.

“It certainly is a trend. I think it is one that is here to stay,” Greenberg said.

According to YouTube’s count, Rassmussen’s 9-minute-and-30-second piece on friction and gravity had seen 1,718 views as of Wednesday evening.

Rasmussen, who serves as Park View’s audio-visual coordinator in addition to teaching eighth-grade science, does more than make videos. He recently helped with a grant application that brought 105 computers to Park View, and he has brought technology to the classroom in other ways, too. While Rhode Island students do not post assignments to their graduation portfolios until grade nine, Rasmussen has them learn the process in grade eight.

redgar@projo.com