Recommended+Podcasts

**Recommended Podcasts:**
Voice of the Shuttle Podcast

There was a major event that recently occurred in our country's history. The space shuttle went up on its last mission, and NASA is retiring the space shuttle after 30 years of service. As a science teacher whenever something historical that occurs that is science related, I spend the time to discuss it with my students. This podcast is an interview with Steve Nesbitt, who has been the NASA Public Affairs Officer. This man has done every single play by play commentary on the space shuttle since it first went up in 1981. Growing up in Florida I have fond memories of watching the space shuttle on television then going outside to see it in the sky. As soon his I heard Steve's voice I recognized it from the man who describe all the launches. This is a great podcast because Steve gives some history about the first shuttle launch. Also, he talks about the //Challenger// which was a major tragedy in our country. During the podcast you get to here actual communication from the astronauts in space to NASA. You can hear discussions from live missions that NASA conducted. The podcast is not very long, and does an excellent job keeping the listener's attention. I will play this for my students at the beginning of the year because I feel it is important to keep the students up to date with what is going in the country. -Greg

[|The Little Red Hen] In my years of teaching I have discovered that some children have not had access to fairy tales. One of the things I always remember from fairy tales are the moral of the stories. There seems to be a moral for any situation that may be happening. This one tells the tale of doing the work if you want the reward. It ties in well when you have students who do not do their homework or study for tests. -Ellen

Paper vs. Digital Text Books This podcast discusses districts announcing that they are going to a completely digital environment without any paper textbooks. The two speakers don't have all of the information about the particular district involved but they discuss many pros and cons of this decision. My sister is a middle school teacher on Long Island. A nearby district went all digital last year and now her district is contemplating the same. There are so many things to consider!

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The Math Factor Podcast

I didn't find a ton of math podcasts on the internet, I guess there aren't many people talking high school level math in podcast form. This was the best one I found. Some of the concepts might be a little complicated for high school students, but there were some good topics I could use in the classroom. This podcast does have some nice math brainteasers that they walk you through and show interesting ways of solving them.