Physics teacher Benjamin Taylor moved the camera toward a circular magnet as his students from five states used video conference software to watch the magnet pick up iron. “What makes magnetism weird?” he said. “It’s kind of an invisible thing,” one student responded via video. His voice projected through a microphone from a private school in Connecticut to a basement classroom at Severn School in Severna Park.
Alanna Sokoloff, a senior at Severn School, watched the lesson that was displayed across two screens — one with a digital white board and another with Taylor and her classmates. A device that controlled her microphone, camera and the volume of the screens sat on one of the two tables in the classroom.