Lab Out Loud » Brian

Episode 73 – NCSE Now Defending Climate Change Education

Brian — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:30:29 +0000

Dr. Eugenie Scott

As science educators are increasingly reporting attacks on climate change education, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is announcing that they will also be defending climate change science in public school science education. Join us as Dr. Eugenie Scott explains this new initiative for NCSE by adding climate change to their portfolio in defending good science education.

Links:

To listen to this episode, download the mp3 directly, find us on iTunes, or use the player below.

Episode 71 – Hack Your Bio Class

Brian — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:30:44 +0000

Marcus Wohlsen

For the last episode of 2011, we talk with journalist and author Marcus Wohlsen. Wohlsen is a science writer for the Associated Press who has received abundant praise for his recent book “Biopunk: DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life.”
Listen to the episode as Wohlsen talks about his book, the underground community of “biopunks” and how you might hack your biology curriculum.

Links

To listen to this episode, download the mp3 directly, find us on iTunes, or use the player below.

Episode 70 – Go Back in Time with Terra Tempo

Brian — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 06:30:20 +0000

David Shapiro

We welcome David Shapiro to the show to talk about his graphic novel “Terra Tempo: Ice Age Cataclysm”. Shapiro is the creative director and writer at Craigmore Creations – a publishing house that specializes in Earth science and natural history stories. In “Terra Tempo”, Shapiro’s young characters travel back in time to Glacial Lake Missoula and witness the resulting floods when the ice dam breaks. Listen to the episode and engage your students in natural history with “Terra Tempo”.

Links

To listen to this episode, download the mp3 directly, find us on iTunes, or use the player below.

Episode 69 – Success with Science

Brian — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 06:30:29 +0000

Shiv Gaglani

Ever wanted your students to conduct scientific research? Our guest this week has some insights for you. A second place winner in the Intel Science awards in 2006, Shiv Gaglani is now a graduate of Harvard working to spur interest in STEM among students. We talk with Shiv about his book (and website) “Success with Science”, how to engage your students in scientific research, and the importance of STEM in our economy.

Links

To listen to this episode, download the mp3 directly, find us on iTunes, or use the player below.

Episode 67 – Take a Field Trip…In Your Classroom

Brian — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 05:30:30 +0000

Jamie Loizzo

Our guest this week is Jamie Loizzo, project manager for Purdue zipTrips™. A zipTrip is an electronic, interactive field trip that connects students across the country to scientists at Purdue University. Through the experience, students are able to observe real-life science laboratories, research and science careers. Listen to the interview and take your kids on a zipTrip!

Links

Purdue zipTrips™
Follow zipTrips on Twitter
Find zipTrips on Facebook
zipTrips on YouTube
Jamie Loizzo, Project Manager
zipTrips: Behind the Scenes (EzineMark.com)
“Field Trips Go Electronic” from Post-Tribune
“Electronic Field Trip Brings Science to Students“ (Farm and Dairy)

To listen to this episode, download the mp3 directly, find us on iTunes, or use the player below.

Episode 65 – Framing a New Vision for Science Education

Brian — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 05:30:29 +0000

Dr. Jonathan Osborne

Join us to kick off our 2011-2012 season by talking science standards with Jonathan Osborne from Stanford University. As a committee member who helped draft the Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards released this summer, Osborne talks to us about science practices, crosscutting concepts and core ideas found within the framework.

Preview from the Show:

The intention of this document was that it would spell out the kind of broad framework of what it was that a science education K-12 should attempt to achieve. And the framework… basically has conceptualized this really in terms of it being a framework for the practices, which are: what kinds of things do scientists do, what are the cross-cutting concepts that appear in all of the sciences, and then what are the core ideas? And the core ideas are conceptualized in terms of life science, physical sciences, earth sciences, and what we may call ideas that are central to engineering. …This document will be used to write a set of standards, which will be the set of common core standards in science.

…there are these practices that scientists engage in: asking questions, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations using modeling. And therefore, you can’t really say that you’ve got a rounded science education or complete science education if you don’t spell out to students that this process of analyzing and interpreting data is something that is fundamental and key to science.

Education is about making people think. It’s about interesting people in a topic. It’s about engaging them so that they will pursue it for the rest of their lives. Now I’m speaking to this kind of mythical parent here, but if you just want them to know the stuff – yeah, sure, they’ll know it for the test tomorrow. But you’ll not be leaving them with the legacy, or enduring interest and love of a subject. And do you want your kid to be someone who’s stimulated, engaged and interested in school? Or do you want them to be someone who regards [school] as a boring place where all they have to do is get a lot of information shoved down their throat, regurgitate and forget it the next day? At the moment, we do too much of the latter in science education. And I don’t blame the teachers for that; a lot of it’s about the assessment and the ways in which that assessment has become high-stakes. And there’s not enough space for making things and exploring ideas. That’s what education should really be about – exploring ideas.

Links:

Jonathan Osborne, Stanford
Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards The book can be read or downloaded at no charge from the National Academies Press.
Committee on Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards
Next Generation Science Standards
Happy 5th Anniversary

Featured Image used with Permission from the National Academy of Sciences

To listen to this episode, download the mp3 directly, find us on iTunes, or use the player below.

Episode 64 – A Visit with Science Olympiad

Brian — Mon, 09 May 2011 05:30:19 +0000

Dr. Gerard Putz and Jennifer Kopach

In our final show of the season, we talk with Dr. Gerard J. Putz (President of Science Olympiad) and Jennifer Kopach (Marketing Director) about the Science Olympiad National Tournament to be hosted on May 20-21 by the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Listen and learn how Science Olympiad has changed and continues to be one of the premiere science competitions in the nation. Interested in starting a Science Olympiad team in your school? Get suggestions from the pros.

Links:

Featured Image Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisebel/5697226000/sizes/l/in/photostream/

To listen to this episode, download the mp3 directly, find us on iTunes, or use the player below.

Episode 63 – ThinkGeek and Re-purposing Electronics

Brian — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 05:30:52 +0000

This week we talk with Shane Peterman, PR Manager at ThinkGeek.com. In March, ThinkGeek introduced “Take These Broken Things“, a program where they were thinking* about sending boxes of broken stuff to deserving groups (like a school technology lab or a FIRST Robotics team).

We talk with Shane about the program, re-purposing electronics, and about the products available at ThinkGeek.com.

*After the interview was conducted, ThinkGeek announced an update to the program on their blog:

So. You guys are kinda into broken things, apparently. The little form below has logged 1,930 requests to date, so we know the interest is there and we’re giving this program a shot. In fact, we’ve sent out some already but it will take time to work through the list. We’re giving priority to groups–especially those that work with children or for educational, community reasons…

Links:

ThinkGeek.com
ThinkGeek Blog
Take These Broken Things Program and Sign-up
2011 April Fools Items from ThinkGeek
Think Geek Chocolate Bunny Zombies and TaunTaun Sleeping Bag
Lab Out Loud April Fools: 2010, 2011
Make Magazine
EPA eCycling
Gadget Trade-in and Recycling Programs That Pay

Brian’s Science Teacher Gift Recommendations from ThinkGeek:

Featured Image: Actual dumpster divers at old ThinkGeek offices

Direct download: LOL63.mp3

Episode 61 – Google’s Global Science Fair

Brian — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 05:30:24 +0000

Cristin Frodella, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Google

For episode 61, we talk with Google’s Cristin Frodella about the Google Global Science Fair 2011. In partnership with CERN, the LEGO Group, National Geographic and Scientific American, Google has created an exciting new global science competition to help celebrate young scientific talent and engage students in science. Learn how to submit a project, then later to see and vote for some of the best projects.

Links:

14-year-old Tesca Fitzgerald offers her sample project:

Direct download: LOL61.mp3

Episode 60 – Paleontology: Adventure with a Purpose

Brian — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 06:30:39 +0000

Dr. Paul Sereno

For episode 60, we talk about Paleontology with Dr. Paul Sereno. Dr. Sereno is a world-renowned paleontologist and Professor of Organismal Biology & Anatomy at the University of Chicago. He joins us to talk about what’s new in the field of paleontology.

Links:

paulsereno.org
Project Exploration
Paul Sereno – University of Chicago Experts
Paul Sereno, National Geographic Explorer in Residence
Latest Dinosaur Find – a Precursor to T-Rex (Jan 11, 2011 – CBS Chicago.com)
Paul Sereno TED Profile & TED Presentation: Paul Sereno Digs Up Dinosaurs
Paul Sereno, One of 50 Most Beautiful Chicagoans (ChicagoMag.com)
Illinois State Fossil – the Tullimonster
U-Haul SuperGraphics – Illinois
The Archaeopteryx, an early bird (University of California Museum of Paleontology)
Are Birds Really Dinosaurs? (University of California Museum of Paleontology)
T-Rex Feathers (npr.org)
Fermilab
Fermilab Lecture Series Presents Dr. Paul Sereno
Argonne National Laboratory
Principles of Paleobiology (University of Maryland Masters of Life Science)

2010 University of Chicago Spring Convocation Speech

Featured Image showing Sereno with Nigersaurus, a plant-eating dinosaur (Lauren Victoria Burke/Associated Press) from the Boston Globe Online

Direct download: LOL60.mp3