Podcasting and Science Education: Giving Birds a Voice James Hefti – Crossing Boundaries Pulaski Senior High School Pulaski, New York 13142, USA

Who am I? High school science teacher in upstate New York Eleventh year – currently teach 76 Biology students and 22 Earth Science students Trying to include more technology-based instruction Have received outstanding professional development through Crossing Boundaries – Hobart & William Smith Colleges & Cornell University

What is a podcast? An audio recording downloaded from the internet – Watch YouTube video Podcasting With Your Students for more information!Podcasting With Your Students Or podcasts can easily be recorded by students – Barred owl example You can post podcasts on a free Wikispace wiki and create a gallery of podcastsWikispace – heftibiowiki.wikispaces.com heftibiowiki.wikispaces.com Students can listen, learn and discuss what they’ve created

How can a podcast be used in a high school science classroom? New instruction Enrichment Review Assessment Podcasts could summarize a scientist's research, describe a species or follow the metamorphosis of a butterfly... the potential is unlimited!

Human organ systems podcasts – students discuss a series of topics regarding a specific organ system Human organ systems podcasts “Environmental Minute” or public service announcementEnvironmental Minute Earth Science students go beyond required instruction and investigate and discuss objects in our solar system that they find interesting Ideas for podcasts

Example Podcasts iTunes has many science-related podcasts to subscribe to or download for free Barred owl example for the environmental minute assignment Sample podcast from Crossing Boundaries wiki regarding hippo conservation in Africahippo conservation Immune system podcast example for Human Organ Systems Podcast project

Example iTunes podcast in Spanish

How-to create a good podcast The 5 R’s (sort of) Research the topic Write the script Rehearse the script Revise the script Record an audio file

Include your name in the introductory statement Edit the script before recording! Speak clearly when recording Don’t talk too fast Close your podcast with some type of summary How-to create a good podcast

Audacity Audio editing software Free software download: To convert Audacity files to mp3’s (also free download): Easy to use for beginner applications Very powerful and sophisticated for advanced users Quick demonstration of recording process

Outstanding resources _Home_Page (Audacity’s wiki that includes tutorials and tips) _Home_Page (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) (All about birds by Cornell) (Cornell’s collection of bird and animal sounds at Macaulay Library)

The future of studying? Teacher makes student-created podcasts available for download Students place files on their portable music devices Students listen while going for a walk, while riding the bus to school, whenever they have down time Students learn from each other