Lab Out Loud®

For several years I’ve turned my students loose with a rather boring video of my speedometer as I traveled around town.

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Randy Olson (Credit: Sandy Huffaker for the New York Times

For our 100th podcast interview (including 52 interviews with Periodicity), we talk with former marine biologist turned filmmaker and author Randy Olson.  Since we last talked with Randy about Flock of Dodos, he has since put out another movie (Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy) and a book (Don’t Be Such a Scientist: ).  We talk with Randy about his new book and the importance of how scientists communicate.

We’d like to thank NSTA for their continued support of Lab Out Loud.  If you haven’t already done so, make sure to join or renew your membership.  If you have any comments from our third season, or have any suggestions for next year, please contact us.

Links:

• Don’t Be Such a Scientist
• Randy Olson – Wikipedia Entry
• Don’t Be Such a Scientist
• Don’t Be Such a Scientist (amazon.com)
• Don’t Be Such a Scientist (Facebook group)
• Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy
• Flock of Dodos
• Muffymoose.com
• Eager to Tell Stories of Science, a Biologist Evolves (NY Times)
• Invisibly Emptied Oceans (Dot Earth, NY Times)
• Their Own Worst Enemies
• Science-Based Medicine (book review)
• Randy Olson’s Forthcoming Book: Don’t Be Such a Scientist (book review)
• WSST’s Periodicity
• Periodicity Episode 46: Flock of Dodos

Barnacle Sex Music Video (Barnacles Tell No Lies)

Direct download: LOL48.mp3

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Daniel Loxton

Our guest this week is Daniel Loxton, editor of Junior Skeptic and author/illustrator.  Daniel joins us to talk about Junior Skeptic, shepherding and his new book: Evolution: How we and all Things Came to Be.

Links:

• Wikipedia Entry on Daniel Loxton
• Evolution: How we and all Things Came to Be (Amazon.com)
• Junior Skeptic Explains Evolution (Wired)
• Junior Skeptic
• Follow Daniel on Twitter

Praise From GeekDad (Wired):

Evolution

Daniel Loxton’s Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be (Kids Can Press, 2010) is the best overview of evolution for children of which I’m aware.  There have been other recent kids’ books on Darwin, motivated by last year’s 150th anniversary of Origin of the Species.  Instead of focusing on Darwin, Loxton sticks with explaining the mechanics of natural selection, both what it can accomplish and explain and what it can’t.  Beautifully illustrated and elegantly written, any child interested in the story of life will be fascinated by it. There’s no need to take my word for it: This review is a couple of weeks later than I’d hoped, because my 6-yr-old kept stealing it and carrying it around the house to study.






Direct download: LOL47.mp3

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Paleontologist Scott

You may know this week’s guest as Paleontologist Scott from the PBS hit show “Dinosaur Train”. In episode 46, Paleontologist Scott talks about the show, being a paleontologist, and his new book Dinosaur Odyssey.

Links:

• Scott Sampson’s Website
• Purchase Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life
• Dinosaur Train (PBS)
• Dinsosaur Train Videos
• Dinosaur Train (Wikipedia Entry)
• Dinosaur Fossil Reveals True Feather Colors (wired.com)
• Listen to Colouring in Dinosaurs (Quirks and Quarks)
• Masiakausaurus
• Dinosaur Planet (IMDB)

Dinosaur Train Characters "Buddy" and "Tiny"

Direct download: LOL46.mp3

Lawmakers in Washington and in state governments across the United States have officially labeled earthquake damage as preventable. They have enacted laws that tax citizens for new building strategies. After watching the earthquake disasters unfold in Haiti and Chile, a majority of American citizens are now becoming skeptical of the claim that human actions can prevent the massive amount of damage that mother nature can throw at us. And governments are still not listening to the people.

How did we ever get to a point where bad science drives big government to punish the people for living the American dream that coastlines provide for us?

It all began with a geologist named Harry Hammond Hess. [Read the rest of this entry...]

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Cory Doctorow (photo by Joi Ito, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0)

We first met Cory Doctorow in 2008 when he was giving a book tour for “Little Brother” in Milwaukee, WI.  Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger, and the co-editor of Boing Boing. We talk with Doctorow about science and science fiction, privacy, and his new book “Makers”.

Links:

• Doctorow’s craphound.com
• Doctorow’s Novels (at Amazon.com)
• News about Makers
• Download Little Brother
• Wikipedia Entry
• Gruntzooki Flickr Stream
• Doctorow on Twitter
• Doctorow’s writing at the Guardian and Salon.com
• Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
• Boing Boing

Direct download: LOL45.mp3

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Griff Jones

Griff Jones is an award-winning science teacher plucked from teaching high school to work with UFTeach – a program with the University of Florida designed to increase the quantity and quality of secondary mathematics and science teachers.  Griff was also selected to work with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to make two videos about understanding the science behind car crashes: Understanding Car Crashes: When Physics Meets Biology & Understanding Car Crashes: It’s Basic Physics.  Griff talks to us about the videos, the IIHS, and their many resources for science teachers.

Make sure to visit Griff and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety at the 2010 NSTA Conference on Science Education in Philadephia.

Links:

• (IIHS) Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
• IIHS Vehicle Ratings
• IIHS Videos: “Understanding Car Crashes: When Physics Meets Biology” & “Understanding Car Crashes: It’s Basic Physics”
• 50th Anniversary crash test video: 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air & 2009 Chevrolet Malibu
• 2010 NSTA Conference on Science Education in Philadephia
• UFTeach
• Griff Jones – UFTeach Biography (pdf)
• Griff Jones – Products from Science Kit
• ‘Galileo’ Subs for Instructor in UFTeach Lab
• UF Today: Two former high school teachers show their college students how to teach math and science. The first lesson is to have fun

From Paul G. Hewitt, the developer of the “Conceptual Physics” curriculum and author of the best selling text book by the same name: “The video “Understanding Car Crashes: It’s Basic Physics” and accompanying teacher’s guide are wonderful. The pacing is excellent, the coverage fascinating, and most importantly, the physics is correct. It’s a first rate teaching package. I give it five stars!” (www.iihs.org/videos/default.html)

Direct download: LOL44.mp3

I know many of you are still fighting for Pluto (let it go, it’s over). You might find tonight’s NOVA special, The Pluto Files on PBS, helpful as you work through your loss. Host Neil deGrasse Tyson (also author of the book The Pluto Files) walks us through Pluto’s story from rise to fall.

Check out the trailer. After tonight’s airing, you can watch the video at the show’s website.

Also at the site is:

• hate-mail from third graders,
• a name your favorite planet contest
• a place to share new ways to remember planet names.

Haven’t had enough, check out the book The Pluto Files.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

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Adam Savage

We first met Adam Savage (from the Mythbusters) at The Amaz!ng Meeting 7 last summer, where he gave a talk about the creative process and failure that comes with ‘making’.  Of course, we knew that we had to get Adam on the show.  A few months later, we were lucky to talk with Adam about the Mythbusters, science education, and how he uses both experimentation and learning from mistakes in his work both on and off the show.

Links:

• adamsavage.com
• The Mythbusters (Discovery Channel)
• Follow the Mythbusters on Twitter
• Wikipedia Entry on Adam Savage
• Mythbusters Bio on Adam Savage
• Adam Savage (donttrythis) on Twitter
• Fancast Clip: Bullet dropped vs. fired
• Mythbusters: Antacid Jail Break
• Mythbusters at the White House
• Presentation for Maker Faire 2009: Adam Savage’s Colossal Failures
• TED Talks: Adam Savage’s Obsessions
• Interview with lifehacker.com
• Interview with popularmechanics.com
• Online Interview with MAKE Magazine, Part I
• Online Interview with MAKE Magazine, Part II

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SOFIA's 100 Inch Diameter Telescope

Dana Backman is the Outreach Director for SOFIA – The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.  Essentially, SOFIA is a modified 747SP with telescope in its fuselage.  A joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Center (NASA supplied the aircraft and the telescope was built in Germany), SOFIA is the largest airborne astronomical observatory that will allow astronomers to peer into the visible, infrared and sub-millimeter spectrum of space – above the majority of water vapor in the atmosphere.  Dana talks with us about the aircraft, the mission, and some exciting opportunities for science teachers.

Links:

• SOFIA Science Center
• SOFIA (nasa.gov)
• SOFIA Mission (nasa.gov)
• SOFIA Image Gallery
• SOFIA Video Gallery
• 747 Flies With a Big Hole in its Fuselage…For Science (Wired)
• SOFIA: Exploring the Hidden Universe (short documentary video)

Direct download: LOL42.mp3