Lab Out Loud

This week, Lab Out Loud welcomes IRIS (the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) to the show. Michael Hubenthal (senior education specialist) and John Taber (Director of Education and Public Outreach) join co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler to talk about the educational opportunities in seismology and earth science available from IRIS. Listen to Lab Out Loud to learn how you can us...

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 co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler are delighted to welcome Suzan...

As Lab Out Loud has been showcasing science videos lately, they decided to investigate what it takes to make a good science video. To that end, co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler 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...

To kick off season nine of Lab Out Loud, co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler welcome Sal Khan to Lab Out Loud.  As founder of The Khan Academy, Sal is encouraging students age 13-18 to submit a 10-minute video to the Breakthrough Junior Challenge.  Presented by The Breakthrough Prize and The Khan Academy, The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is currently seeking innovative videos from students that...

From the Smithsonian Science Education Center, Lab Out Loud welcomes 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 shor...

To close their eighth season at Lab Out Loud, co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler welcome Clifton Roozeboom to the show.  Lab Out Loud first met Clifton at the NSTA 2015 Conference in Chicago, where they noticed The PocketLab in the exhibit hall.  Built to be a small, rugged wireless sensor platform, the PocketLab can measure acceleration, force, angular velocity, magnetic field, pressure, altit...

Inspired by a session at the NSTA 2015 Conference in Chicago, co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler talk with Plot.ly founder and COO Matt Sundquist.  As a relatively young graphing program, Plot.ly makes it easy to collaboratively analyze and visualize data.  Matt talks to Lab Out Loud about Plot.ly, how it can be used in the science classroom, and how you can even import real data into this powe...

Prompted from listener feedback, co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler welcome Dr. Kate McNeill and Dr. Joe Krajcik to Lab Out Loud.  As authors of Supporting Grade 5-8 Students in Constructing Explanations in Science: The Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning Framework for Talk and Writing, Kate and Joe talk about using the claim, evidence and reasoning (CER) framework as a method to guide students towa...

Co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler welcome John Timmer to Lab Out Loud.  As 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 Lab Out Loud to hear what bills might affect teaching science in your sta...

Have you wanted to reach out to other science teachers with your questions about NGSS?  Lab Out Loud guests Fred Ende and Tricia Shelton can help.  Using Twitter, Fred and Tricia moderate #NGSSchat - an online forum to learn and share around the Next Generation Science Standards and great science teaching.  Listen to the Lab Out Loud this week to find out how you can "lurk", learn and contribute t...

Continuing an exploration of art in science, co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler invite author, illustrator and math/science teacher Dale Debakcsy to the show.  Every two weeks, Debakcsy writes 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 Scie...

Artist and Scientist Dr. David Goodsell join co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler on Lab Out Loud this week.  As Associate Professor at the Scripps Research Institute, Dr. Goodsell splits his time on research and science outreach.  His science outreach includes artwork featured online, in a variety of media and even in science museums.  Listen to the show to learn how Dr. Goodsell makes his art,...

The Bad Astronomer (a.k.a. Phil Plait) has been busy since we've last had him on Lab Out Loud.  As astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author, Phil can now add YouTube host to his resume.  Working with Hank and John Green (Crash Course) and PBS Digital Studios, Phil has been writing and filming a new series on YouTube called Crash Course Astronomy.  Listen to the show to hear abou...

This week Lab Out Loud welcomes journalist Mark Johnson to the show.  As medical and science journalist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, researching and communicating science to the public is the core of Mark's work.   Excelling in long form journalism, Mark joins co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler to talk about his experiences with science journalism, including the Pulitzer Prize winning st...

According to our Lab Out Loud's guest, Einstein thought like an artist, and Picasso thought like a scientist.  As Professor emeritus of history and philosophy of science at University College London, Arthur I. Miller has been exploring the intersection of art and science.  His new book Colliding Worlds: How Cutting-Edge Science is Redefining Contemporary Art tells the story of how art, science and...

As science educators, we are likely to recognize Sputnik as the first satellite in space.  But what has happened with satellites since Sputnik?  How many satellites are even out there, and how do we rely upon them?  To help answer some of these questions, co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler welcome Dr. James Clay Moltz to the show.  As author of Crowded Orbits, Dr. Moltz examines the conflict an...

To prepare for this episode, co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler had to do a little homework: see the movie Interstellar. After seeing it, they knew they had to invite Kip Thorne back to Lab Out Loud.  As Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology, Thorne was the scientific advisor and executive producer of Interstellar.  Dr. Thorne joins Lab Ou...

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 practicing scientific a...

This week Lab Out Loud turns their  attention to science demonstrations.  And who better to talk about demos than Steve Spangler.  Famously known for his Mentos+Diet Coke experiment, Steve is an engaging and entertaining speaker and YouTube sensation.  Steve joins co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler to talk about how demonstrations can engage students, while promoting safety, fostering critical...

As founder of BirdBrain Technologies and maker of the Hummingbird Robotics Kit, Tom Lauwer has been busy infusing robotics into classrooms of all types.  In fact, Tom hails from the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute’s CREATE lab (you might remember the CREATE lab when we talked about robots with Illah Nourbakhsh) where he focused on the process of designing hardware and software to support learne...

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 Resea...

Episode 113 - Teaching Pseudoscience in the Classroom For the final episode of season seven, co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler invite Rodney Schmalz and Steven Lilienfeld to Lab Out Loud.  Schmalz and Lilienfeld recently published an article discussing the use of pseudoscience in the science classroom to help give students the tools needed to differentiate between scientific and pseudo-scienti...

This week co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler 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 you can b...

This week Lab Out Loud welcomes Neil Shubin to the show.  As paleontologist and anatomy professor at the University of Chicago, Shubin has had some fantastic opportunities to hunt for fossils and use them to communicate stories of our own evolution.  In 2008, he wrote these stories into Your Inner Fish – a national bestselling book that has now been adapted into a three-part series on PBS.  With c...

Elementary science has been on the minds lately of Lab Out Loud's co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler.  So it is fitting that their guest this week has been working hard helping elementary teachers tackle the Next Generation Science Standards.  As Coordinator for Elementary Science in Baltimore County Schools, Eric Cromwell has the task of moving a large number of schools and teachers into an NG...