Lab Out Loud®

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Our guest this week is Jim Brey, Director of the Education Program at the American Meteorological Society.  Jim talks to us about the AMS Education Program, which promotes the teaching of atmospheric, oceanographic, and hydrologic sciences through pre-college teacher training and instructional resource material development.

Links:

• AMS Education Program
• DataStreme Atmosphere – Links to weather maps and other items of interest
• DataStreme Ocean - Links to ocean data and maps and other items of interest
• Ocean in the Earth System Book (Read Chapter 1)
• Weather Studies Book (Read Chapter 1)
• AMS Contacts
• AMS News Releases
• Jim Brey, 2003 Wisconsin Professor of the Year
• Video of Simulated Tornado

Direct download: LOL31.mp3

Looking for Earth Day resources to use in the classroom?  We thought it might be nice to remind you about a few LOL Podcasts that can be used to help save the earth:

• Episode 30 with Mike Heithaus (protecting ocean life)
• Episode 22 – EPA’s SC3 Program
• Episode 20 with Ed Begley Jr.
• Episode 14 with Bill Nye

It was early spring of 1998 and I was student teaching in a 7th grade Life Science class. Now, I’m not a biology person – not certified to teacher it at all – but here I was trying to teach kids about the parts of the cell to the tune of Gilligan’s Island. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

The nucleus is the control center,
the ribosomes make proteins
The endoplasmic reticulum,
is the cell’s transport system

The lysosomes are the clean-up crew,
they break down the cell’s waste,
The mitochondria are powerhouses,
they make the cell’s energy
they make the cell’s energy

Vacuoles are storage tanks,
the cell membrane lets things in and out
These parts float in the cytoplasm,
it’s a jelly-like material
—— a jelly-like material

These were the parts of an animal cell,
plants have a few things different,
There’s a cell wall—– for their support,
They have chloroplast—– to make food,
no lysosomes,
usually one vacuole and it’s real large,
In a plant cell

Not only did I write the song but I also recorded myself singing it. Here is the oldest audio recording of me ever posted online. (I think my voice even had more hair back then.)

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Download the audio directly: gilliganscell.mp3

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Dr. Mike Heithaus

Our guest this week is Dr. Mike Heithaus.  Dr. Heithaus is the director of the Marine Sciences Program at Florida International University in Miami.  He has also worked with National Geographic’s Crittercam, and you might recognize his name as the author of Holt Biology (the cheetah book).

Dr. Heithaus talks to us about his research, his interest in science, and how there’s more science than you might realize in marine science.

• Mike Heithaus Homepage
• Biography from FIU
• FIU Marine Sciences
• Heithaus Lab Research
• Shark Bay Ecosystem Research Project
• National Geographic Crittercam Home
• Crittercam Biography
• Interview for Crittercam
• Video from the Discovery Channel: Great White Down Under: Tiger Tagging
• Article in Oberlin Alumni Magazine
• Interview with SEEDS
  

Direct download: LOL30.mp3