Evolution of Physics Education through Phys-TikTok

Tiktok has been a popular app on social media, especially among teens, young adults, and college-age kids. Creators on this site post short videos that grab the attention of the audience. These videos contain fun content and deliver a direct message to the audience. The audience tends to retain the messages through Tiktok better than those sent via long YouTube videos. Now, how about PHYS-TikToks? We tried TikTok in one of our introductory level physics courses, a course dedicated to teaching mechanics in the human body. Physical therapy, Sports medicine, and Exercise Science majors require mastery of at least two physics courses, one linking the human body with mechanics and the other with electricity. The majority of the students in this class have little to no exposure to physics before college but are very motivated to learn physics and very enthusiastic about the subject. We set up a group of volunteers to produce PHYS-TikTok videos focusing on each new physics topic discussed in the class. The class widely benefited from the videos, and more students volunteered to design them. While each video contained an important message, we kept the videos short, fun, and most importantly educational.