Science for the classroom and beyond
Valerie Bayes joins Lab Out Loud this week to talk about modern agriculture. As the K-12 STEM Outreach Lead for Monsanto, Valerie is busy engaging educators in modern agriculture where cross-cutting concepts like engineering, math, and biology are used to solve important problems in our world today. Through Monsanto’s STEM page, Valerie assists educators in finding powerful classroom resources and even helps teachers […]
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This week’s episode is a Mini-lab. Mini-lab episodes are shorter versions of the same shows you find at laboutloud.com. As a former biology teacher and now product manager at PASCO Scientific, Mike Blasberg has witnessed a transformation in how students collect data in the science classroom. Mike joins us to talk about the evolution of sensors, how we can use a smartphone to collect and analyze […]
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At SXSWedu, we were fortunate to see littleBits founder and CEO Ayah Bdeir unveil the new littleBits STEAM set (watch here). In fact, we were quite impressed to hear about their gender neutral design and see examples of students using the sets to solve real problems. We immediately knew that we had to find out more about this invention-based learning tool, so we are proud to welcome littleBits’ […]
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NOTE: This is a re-release of episode 130 – one of our most popular episodes that we did in the summer of 2015. Since they first released Good Thinking! last summer, The Smithsonian Science Education Center has been hard at work producing many more of these wonderful, short-format videos to support K-12 science educators. Listen to the episode for the first […]
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In February, the journal Science published an article entitled “Climate Confusion Among U.S. Teachers” that has been attracting a great deal of mainstream media attention. Examining a nationwide survey of how middle school and high science teachers address climate change in their classes, the article reveals some encouraging insights and uncovers a few areas for improvement. To help us better […]
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We love collecting data. That’s why we are happy to welcome Chrystian and Rebecca Vieyra to the show. Working as an app developer and high school physics teacher, this husband and wife team developed Physics Toolbox – a suite of apps that use the built-in sensors inside smartphones to complement the current probeware used in classrooms. Listen to the show […]
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Our guest this week is Todd L. Pittinsky, professor in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook University. Todd and Nicole Diamante (a doctoral candidate in engineering at Stony Brook) recently wrote an article that caught our eyes. In “Going Beyond Fun in STEM,” (Phi Delta Kappan) Pittinsky and Diamante suggest that perhaps after the Mentos […]
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Our guests this week come from IRIS – the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology. Michael Hubenthal (senior education specialist) and John Taber (Director of Education and Public Outreach) join us to talk about the educational opportunities in seismology and earth science available from IRIS. Listen to the show to learn how you can use IRIS’s recent earthquake teachable moments, earthquake browser, and how you can search […]
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Many science teachers will recognize that AAAS (the American Association for the Advancement of Science) publishes the respected peer-reviewed journal Science. As the world’s largest general scientific society, AAAS also promotes science literacy with the goal that all students receive a high-quality science education. That’s why we are delighted to welcome Suzanne Thurston and Maria Sosa (both from the AAAS Directorate […]
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As we have been talking about science videos lately, we decided to investigate what it takes to make a good science video. So we invited Derek Muller, creator and host of Veritasium: An Element of Truth to the show. Veritasium is a YouTube channel of science and engineering videos featuring experiments, interviews, demos, and other cool science topics. Derek joins us to talk […]
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From the Smithsonian Science Education Center, we welcome Marjee Chmiel (Associate Director of Curriculum and Communications) and Jean Flanagan (Science Education Research Specialist) to showcase Good Thinking! – a new animated series that explores topics in science, cognition, and pedagogy. Using peer-reviewed research, Good Thinking! addresses common student misconceptions with short, animated episodes specifically geared towards science educators. Listen to the episode to find out more about Good […]
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To close our eighth season at Lab Out Loud, we welcome Clifton Roozeboom to the show. We first met Clifton at the NSTA 2015 Conference in Chicago, where we noticed his company – The PocketLab. Built to be a small, rugged wireless sensor platform, the PocketLab can measure acceleration, force, angular velocity, magnetic field, pressure, altitude, and temperature while simultaneously reporting to a device […]
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Prompted from listener feedback, we welcome Dr. Kate McNeill and Dr. Joe Krajcik to the show. As authors of Supporting Grade 5-8 Students in Constructing Explanations in Science, Kate and Joe join us to talk about using the Claim, Evidence and Reasoning (CER) framework as a method to guide students towards explanations in science. Listen to the show to understand what CER is […]
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Our guest this week is John Timmer, senior science editor for Ars Technica. John has been paying particular attention to state legislatures that, in the first few month of each year, tend to propose bills that attempt to dictate how science is taught in their schools. Listen to the show to hear what bills might affect teaching science in your state. […]
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Have you wanted to reach out to other science teachers with your questions about NGSS? Our guests this week can help. Using Twitter, Fred Ende and Tricia Shelton moderate #NGSSchat – an online forum to learn and share around the Next Generation Science Standards and great science teaching. Listen to the show to find out how you can “lurk”, learn and […]
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Continuing our exploration of art in science, we invite author, illustrator and math/science teacher Dale Debakcsy to the show. Every two weeks, Debakcsywrites and illustrates about important women in science. Now that he has now completed half of his two-year project, Debakcsy has compiled the first 26 portraits into a book called The Illustrated Women in Science: Year One. Listen to the […]
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As webmaster for the ENSI (Evolution and the Nature of Sciences Institute) website, Larry Flammer has helped to provide a number of free, student-centered, interactive lessons focusing on the nature of science. So Larry wrote Science Surprises: Exploring the Nature of Science – a text supplement available as an eBook that helps teach the nature of science, with lessons for […]
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Season eight of of Lab Out Loud starts with our thoughts turning towards climate science. As Programs and Policy Director for the National Center for Science Education, Mark McCaffrey boasts an impressive resume in climate and environmental science. Mark helped lead the development of the Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) and has testified before the House Subcommittee on Research about climate […]
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Even though our season already closed, we had a chance to talk with Abigail Fern (marketing director for LEGO Education in North America) about Lego’s new Science Activity Pack for EV3. So we decided to share it with our listeners. You may recall our conversation last spring with teacher Caroline Hanson last about Lego’s new Mindstorm EV3. It’s not a fully-produced show, but […]
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This week we welcome journalist Amy Harmon to Lab Out Loud. Harmon recently wrote an article for the NY Times in which she examined a county council in Hawaii that wanted to ban genetically modified organisms. Listen to the show as Harmon unravels the intersection of politics and science in this heated debate, and you will discover many resources that […]
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