Podcasts in the Science Classroom

Some ideas for Podcasting assignments for the Science classroom:

• Create a radio commercial for a breakthrough invention (eg. the artificial heart)
• Record the State of the Union Address section on Science
  
• An interview with a historical Science figure (eg. Mendel, Hooke, Virchov)
• An interview with a nobel prize winner dead or alive (eg. Francis Crick)
  
• Featured "cool Science jobs" (eg. they would research careers they may be interested in such as Forensic Scientist)
• Review soundbites (see below for my AP Bio example)
• A debate between two (or more) students on a particular topic
• A song about a Science concept (eg. Osmosis, Displacement reactions)
• A spin off "Wait, wait, don't tell me" (from NPR) with Science questions
  
• A "This I Believe" segment (also NPR) about a controversial topic (eg. Cloning)

Now regarding hosting podcasts that your students create...

I found this free website hosting site called called PodBean, stores up to 2.5GB of podcasting material to start off with, after that you get a monthly increase of 500MB.

Here (below) is what your podcast weblog would look like (you can customize it in many ways). The interface is exactly the same as that used by Edublogs, if you're familiar with that. Click on the image to go to my podcast weblog.

Gcast.com is another free-podcast creating and hosting service. It's more basic, but not necessarily more straightforward than PodBean's. The interface is also not as attractive or customizable and it takes a while for the podcast to be uploaded and published once you have created it. And from Eric's junk drawer, check out Houndbite for podcasting.

The following podcast was created by one of my students in preparation for their AP Biology exam . Their assignment was to pick a topic from a class list we compiled of "difficult Biology concepts" and create a podcast that their classmates could download onto their iPods and that would help them review for their AP exam while they were working out in the gym or traveling on the bus. The quality of their podcasts varied, some were too long and monotonous, others were silly, others seemed like they were just reading their notes or a textbook. This one is short and sweet, I felt that it accomplished its job well. If I were to do this activity again, I would have a class brainstorming session beforehand where the students would come up with a list of "dos and don'ts" when creating a podcast episode, that would help them get off to a good start.

Electron Transport Chain- A Review

Powered by Podbean.com

The podcast was created using Audacity, a very simple and free audio recording and editing tool. It is not a hosting service though, so you'd then need to sign up to one of the free podcast hosting websites and upload the podcasts to it.

Podcasting ideas- great tips for using podcasts in the classroom, examples of assignments and links.
5 Resources for Creating and Hosting Podcasts (from freetech4teachers.com)
PodSafe Audio- free sound effects to use in podcasts
55 Great Websites to Download Free Sounds

Good Science podcasts to use in class:

• NPR Science Friday Podcasts
• The Naked Scientists Science Podcasts
• Scientific American Podcasts
• A collection of Science podcasts here

If you have any other ideas about using available podcasts or student podcasting in the Science classroom, please comment below.