Podcasts and Podcasting

The truth behind the myth behind the truth behind learning styles (Learning About Teaching Physics podcast)

November 30, 2011

Have you heard that some people are auditory learners and some are visual learners?   Have you heard that that’s bunk?  Have you heard that there might be something behind the bunk, but aren’t quite sure what it is?  Listen to my latest podcast from the Learning About Teaching Physics series to hear conversations with myself, [...]

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Fancy schmancy new podcast page! (Learning about Teaching Physics)

September 6, 2011

Thanks to the wonderful efforts of Matt Riggsbee over at Compadre (whom I owe a beer or three), the Learning about Teaching Physics podcast has a beautiful webhome.  I still have just the two podcasts produced (on clickers and classroom demonstrations), but stay tuned for the next one on learning styles (or, the myth thereof).  [...]

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The Art (and Science) of In-Class Questioning via Clickers (Learning About Teaching Physics podcast) #clickers

August 22, 2011

In this second episode of the podcast, I explore recent research on teaching with clickers and in-class questioning:  What techniques do teachers use to make maximal benefit of this teaching approach? Are “clickers” or “personal response systems” just the latest fad in education? Or is there solid research behind their use? In this episode we [...]

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Seeing isn’t believing: Do classroom demonstrations help students learn? (Learning About Teaching Physics podcast)

July 29, 2011

In this first episode of my new Learning About Teaching Physics podcast, we explore classroom demonstrations.  Do they accomplish what we hope that they will? Physics is the study of nature. So, physics classes typically include demonstrations of how those laws of nature play out, often in surprising ways. But do students see what we [...]

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Phylm – make a film about physics!

March 23, 2011

Phylm /’film/ n. [physics + film] The fourth annual Phylm Prize is now open!  Until May 13, anyone can enter a film — though students are especially encouraged — about physics.  The first year’s winners were a set of students with the Special Relativity Rap.  The second year was Science Made Fun about black holes [...]

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American Radio Works — Great radio pieces about education

October 20, 2010

I’m an avid podcast listener — this is how I get my information about the world, listening to wonderfully produced audio pieces while I drive around doing errands.  I recently discovered American Radio Works – a set of documentarians from American Public Media.  They do TV documentaries, but also these wonderful, well-researched and well-produced radio [...]

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Ideas for teaching the phases of the moon

April 27, 2010

A while back, a teacher on a listserv asked for some ideas and resources for teaching the science of the phases of the moon.  Veteran teacher Eric Plett shared this great hands-on activity that I thought merited a blog post of its own. 1.  Darken your room and get a bright light source like an [...]

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Teaching polar science – The Boy Who Found the Light

October 19, 2009

Our latest podcast in the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears webzine has been posted.  This is a bimonthly webzine for elementary educators, to integrate polar science into their teaching.   This month’s webzine is on arctic peoples, and the podcast features a story on how light disappears and reappears in the arctic each year, that you [...]

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Podcasting in the University Classroom (#coltt2009)

August 13, 2009

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs has been experimenting with using podcasts in their nursing courses, though it was four years ago so things might have changed.  They discovered several things along the way: Students needed to be educated that they could listen to podcasts on any MP3 player or on their computer (and [...]

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What’s for dinner? (Teaching food chains)

April 6, 2009

Our latest Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears podcast from the NSDL is up! What’s For Dinner? Teaching Arctic Food Chains We already know why polar bears don’t eat penguins, but what do they eat? In this episode, we’ll share a simple activity that opens a window to understanding a unique ecosystem as one example of [...]

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The podcast is dead. Long live the podcast!

March 30, 2009

What an appropriate title.  I am posting the very last episode of my Science Teaching Tips podcast on Podomatic, and at the same time it has been given new life over at the Exploratorium Teacher Institute website! The last Podomatic podcast episode is here:  The World’s Cheapest Electroscope. Dying to know whether something’s positively or [...]

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Suggest podcasts for elementary teachers?

March 17, 2009

My readers were so helpful when I was writing my article on why physics teachers should read blogs, so I’m coming to you again for your expert advice on another short article.  This one is on how elementary teachers can use podcasts in their classroom, and what podcasts they should consider listening to.  Or, alternatively, [...]

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The Voices in Your Head, OR How NPR reporters do their voicing

March 8, 2009

I recently posted an entry about one of the best jobs I’ll never have – a reporter job at NPR.  But I did have the good fortune to dip my toes into the yummy warm pool that is NPR for a summer, when I was a AAAS Mass Media intern at NPR’s Science Desk.  You [...]

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Let’s Find Out!

February 10, 2009

We’re up to Episode 67 of the Science Teaching Tips podcast! Woo hoo, over a year of science education podcasts!  This one is with one of the most brilliant folks at the Exploratorium (and that’s saying a lot) — Dr. Thomas Humphrey makes my brain spin.  And it’s because he’s just so interested in so [...]

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Dr. Steph has a new podcast series!

February 5, 2009

I’ve got a new podcast series out, and this one is my best yet.  I’ve been hired by the wonderful folks at the National Science Digital Library (they provide a central depot for great digital media for teaching science) to create a podcast for elementary educators on using polar science in their teaching.  We (me [...]

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That’s a good question!

February 1, 2009

Here’s my latest Science Teaching Tips podcast — As any teacher knows, the ability to ask good questions — and use students’ questions — is a valuable skill to have in your teaching toolbelt. In this podcast, TI staff biologist Karen Kalumuck describes how she tries not to answer every question that’s asked during a [...]

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Revising the Rainbow

January 10, 2009

In this week’s episode of Science Teaching Tips, we look at my favorite thing — light.  Light, like, rulez.  Dude.  And so does my old mentor, Paul Doherty, who will tell you one of his best stories from the history of science about how the spectrum came to be the spectrum.  I mean, what the [...]

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How big is the full moon?

January 2, 2009

In keeping with my previous post on the International Year of Astronomy, this week’s 5-minute  Science Teaching Tips podcast is about our perception and the size of the moon.  What coin would just barely cover the full moon? You may be surprised. TI director (and recovering astrophysicist) Linda Shore explains how our brains distort the [...]

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Teaching abroad

December 19, 2008

For this week’s episode of Science Teaching Tips, I’ve got a story from a veteran teacher about her first year of teaching — which was quite unusual.  She was placed in a rural school in Guatemala.  You think you’ve got it tough?!  Hear about her challenges in Episode 63 – Teaching Abroad.

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Mastery learning in K-12 classrooms

December 12, 2008

Two local teachers in Colorado (Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams)  just put together a wonderful little video about how they completely transformed their high school chemistry classrooms, so that students would actually master the material.  In the video, two dynamic presenters show and talk about how they used video podcasts to make better use of [...]

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