Lab Out Loud®

Science for the classroom and beyond

Episode 41 – NY Times Science Writer Nicholas Wade

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Nicholas Wade

This week we talk with Nicholas Wade, author and science writer for the New York Times.  Nicholas talks with us about his new book (The Faith Instinct), recent science breakthroughs and what to expect in the coming year.

Links:


The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Nicholas Wade
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy



Direct download: LOL41.mp3

Episode 40 – Being Sean Carroll

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Sean Carroll (physicist) and Sean B. Carroll (biologist) talk to us about their respective science fields, science education and being Sean Carroll.  (NOTE: Scientists displayed below in alphabetical order)

Links:

Sean B Carroll

Sean B. Carroll (biologist)

Sean M Carroll

Sean M Carroll (physicist)

Direct download: LOL40.mp3

Episode 39 – Standards and Science Education

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Barry Cartwright

Barry Cartwright

Our guest this week is Barry Cartwright – the Science Content Specialist for the Colorado Department of Education.  In November, Colorado recently released their Final Draft of the Colorado Academic Standards in Science.  Barry discusses some of the highlights of the new Colorado science standards and the future of standards in science education.

Links:

Books Recommended By Barry:

Direct download: LOL39.mp3

Episode 38 – National Lab Day

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Jack Hidary

Jack Hidary

Our guest this week is Jack Hidary, chairman of National Lab Day.  Designed to encourage partnerships between scientists, engineers, teachers and students, National Lab Day emerged from a partnership between NSTA, the American Chemical Society (ACS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Jack D. Hidary Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation.  Jack talks to us about the program and website, and what educators and other scientists can do to get involved.

NLD

Links:



Direct download: LOL38.mp3

Episode 37 – Science Because We Can

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Dr. Theo Gray

Dr. Theo Gray

Our guest this week has some serious accolades that would make any geek proud: he has won an Ig Nobel prize (2002), been referenced in a Foxtrot comic, and owns the domain name periodictable.com.  Dr. Theo Gray talks to us this week about his tables, science experiments and safety, Wolfram Alpha, and even answers some student questions.

Links:



Books:




Making Salt the Hard Way





Bacon: The Other White Heat




Direct download: LOL37.mp3

Video Quizzes in Science

Using video clips in the classroom is nothing new – a couple companies have even made a business model for this educational niche.  But Hollywood movies can also have educational value, especially when trying to find errors and discrepancies within them.  To assess some basic properties in matter in my chemistry class, I have been utilizing movie clips for help.

How Dense is Indiana?

When teaching density, I use a clip from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark [You Tube Clip] whereby Indiana tries to swap a gold idol with an equivalent VOLUME of sand.  Obviously, Indiana gets the mass wrong, as sand and gold have quite different densities.  A similar exercise can be found at Glencoe Science, but I originally got this idea from Chem Matters.

I’m Melting?

Moving on to chemical versus physical change, I get a little help from the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz [You Tube Clip].  In the movie, the witch clearly claims that she is melting.  Using clear evidence in the film, I ask the students to defend if she is really melting, or if she is chemically reacting, sublimating or vaporizing.

Others

Of course, movie clips can be used in many other areas of science (see below).  How do you use movie clips in class?

Episode 36 – The Scientific Method Starts with Curiosity

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Dr. Bonnie Bassler

Dr. Bonnie Bassler

With the upcoming 2009 HHMI Holiday Lecture on Science in December (Exploring Biodiversity), we decided to talk with one of the presenters – Dr. Bonnie Bassler.  The focus of Dr. Bassler’s research is on how bacteria communicate with each other in a process called quorum sensing.  This research has earned her a MacArthur fellowship in 2002, and her work is being carefully watched for the development of new antimicrobial drugs.  Dr. Bassler inspires us with her curiosity, her research, and science education.

Links:







Direct download: LOL36.mp3

Singing about laboratory safety

We’ve talked about laboratory safety in the past here at Lab Out loud, but we’ve never put our thoughts to song.

Fortunately, the folks at The Sounds of Science hit the right notes for us.

safetySong

Episode 35 – The Quantum Frontier

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The Quantum Frontier

The Quantum Frontier

With the Large Hadron Collider scheduled to come back online in November, we were able to talk with writer and physicist Don Lincoln again (see Episode 8).  Dr. Lincoln talks about the LHC and his new book: The Quantum Frontier.

Links:

Education Links

Experiments:

Don’s Books:

The Quantum Frontier: The Large Hadron Collider.  The book “describes in layman terms the exciting new research program about to start at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland.”  Find it at Amazon.com.

Understanding the Universe: From Quarks to the Cosmos.  “The target audience for this book is a lay audience of science enthusiasts. I had high school teachers in mind as I wrote it.” Find it at Amazon.com.

Update:

Don will be speaking…

Direct download: LOL35.mp3

Episode 34 – Gene Therapy for Colorblind Monkeys

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Dalton

Dalton

Our guest this week is Dr. Jay Neitz from the department of Ophthalmology at the University of Washington, Seattle.  Dr. Neitz and his research team successfully used gene therapy to replace a faulty gene responsible for red-green colorblindness in adult male squirrel monkeys.  We talk with Dr. Neitz about his experiment, its implications for gene therapy in humans and the process of science that led him to this breakthrough.

Links





Direct download: LOL34.mp3

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