For history teachers, videos can be a powerful tool to contextualize events that seem intangible, or too far distant in the past. When it comes to World War II, specifically, this collection of videos put together by YouTube Education’s Angela Lin, bring a variety of perspectives for students to consider. In the mix, the topics cover the geopolitical significance of the war, as well as personal lives affected in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

For more tips on ideas for using videos, check out the MindShift Teacher’s Guide to Using Videos.

• WORLD WAR II: CRASH COURSE WORLD HISTORY #38

This video is one of the many fabulous educational creations John Green creates about all things history. Here, Green explains why World War has made such a lasting impact on the world and what lessons can be learned from its tragedy. It’s the war sped up and is about as funny as war can be.

• YES, THAT’S MY FATHER

Created by the U.S.Holocaust Memorial Museum, this video is the touching story of Sol Finkelstein, a Polish Jew separated from his father at a concentration camp just days before liberation. Not knowing what became of his father and guilt for not protecting him have plagued Finkelstein until his son and the museum helped find some answers.

• REMEMBERING THE TRAGIC AFTERMATH OF HIROSHIMA

This BBC Worldwide video remembers the horror that the atom bomb caused when it was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Often the battles fought in the Pacific during World War II are overshadowed by the horrific stories of Nazi concentration camps. This video brings the people who became collatoral damage to the forefront.

• ROSIE THE RIVETER: REAL WOMEN WORKERS IN WORLD WAR II

The Library of Congress’ video on how the war changed U.S. labor relations is an important part of the World War II narrative. The video takes a look at the iconic Rosie the Riveter image that’s become synonomous with women’s war work, breaking down the myth. What’s left behind is the beginning of a real change in the country’s women who were no longer content to be housewives.

• CHURCHILL – THEIR FINEST HOUR (AUDIO SLIDESHOW)

Allen Packwood, the Director of the Churchill Archives at the University of Cambridge dissect’s the famous speech Churchill gave in 1940 to prepare the British people of the long, hard days of war to come. The audio and photos reveal how much care Churchill took with this speech and its power to move people.

• WAR TIME NUTRITION

A piece of war time propaganda, this War Stories video reminds Americans why they must ration their food and how important American farming is to the war effort. It features an appearance by the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service who pleads with Americans to eat properly to maintain health, but also be willing to sacrifice. An interesting artifact and great teaching tool for analyzing government messages to citizens during war.

SpaceLab

YouTube and NASA are challenging students to design a science experiment that can be performed in space. Students from 14 to 18 years old can upload videos of their experiments onto YouTube’s Space Lab website.

A panel of scientists, astronauts, and educators, including Stephen Hawking, will judge the entries, and the two winning experiments will be conducted on the International Space Station 250 miles above Earth and live streamed on YouTube.

“The idea of seeing something you conceive and build in your ordinary classroom being actually flown on a rocket, being actually sent to the International Space Station, being actually carried out by a national, is the stuff of fiction. We think that is going to be the thing that gets kids excited,” said YouTube’s Zahaan Bharmal, who conceived of the challenge.

NASA’s counterparts in Europe and Japan are also participating in the worldwide initiative, as are Lenovo and Space Adventures.

More details: Students in two age categories, 14-16 years old and 17-18 years old, either alone or in groups of up to three, may submit a YouTube video describing their experiment to SpaceLab. From the entries, six regional finalists will be brought to Washington, D.C. in March 2012 to experience a ZERO-G flight and receive other prizes. And from that group, two global winners, one from each age group, will be announced and later have their experiments performed on the ISS.

The two global winners will get to choose either a trip to Tanegashima Island, Japan, to watch their experiment blast off in a rocket bound for the ISS, or once they’re 18, a one-of-a-kind astronaut training experience in Star City, Russia, the training center for Russian cosmonauts.

Space Lab is one component of YouTube’s broader educational offering, including YouTube.com/EDU, home to a wealth of high-quality educational videos from educators of all subjects and levels; YouTube.com/Teachers, a resource providing teachers with guidance on how to effectively incorporate video into their classrooms; and YouTube for Schools, a new pilot program aimed at making YouTube accessible in more schools.

“We’re at a very interesting time in the history of space evolution, obviously with the final Shuttle launch, but also with the dawn of a new era of spacecraft and space industry. It’s a tremendously exciting time to be part of space and to be thinking about space,” Bharmal said. “The world is always going to need more scientists, more engineers, more creative people to be the future of space exploration and science, and programs like this that will help inspire the future astronauts.”

Students can submit a two-minute video starting now through December 7. The video can be as simple as an explanation on a blackboard or the demonstration of a mock-up in the classroom. Every video must explain the following:

• Experiment Question: The scientific question the entrant wants to test.
• Hypothesis: An educated guess at answering the experiment question.
• Method:  A simple explanation of the methods used to conduct the experiment testing the hypothesis in microgravity.
• Results: The expected results of the experiment.

Students can submit up to three experiments in one of two scientific disciplines – either biological or physical sciences. The top 60 finalists will be announced on January 3, at which time judging and public voting will begin. Global winners (two individuals/teams chosen from the regional winners, one in each age category) will be announced in March 2012.

The announcement of SpaceLab comes at the same time as YouTube’s relaunch of YouTube.com/Education, and its YouTube for Schools pilot program, which gives schools a chance to allow the education-only site to be accessed through its domain.