Lab Out Loud

This week, Lab Out Loud welcomes Darlene Cavalier to the show. In addition to her position as Professor of Practice at Arizona State University's Center for Engagement and Training, Darlene is the founder of SciStarter - an online community to designed to help people find, join and contribute to science through both formal and informal research projects and events. Darlene joins co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler to help promote Citizen Science Day - a month-long challenge (through May 20, 2017) that seeks to celebrate and engage citizen scientists throughout the world. Listen to the show to learn how you, your students and your family can be citizen scientists by catching clouds with an app, documenting road kill, or fighting Alzheimer's with an online game!

Show notes at: http://laboutloud.com/2017/05/episode-167-scistarter/

This week, Lab Out Loud welcomes Matt Brady to the show. Along with wife Shari, these two high school science teachers have been working to bring pop culture into the classroom to increase student engagement and understanding of science. Their website The Science Of helps broadcast these ideas and strategies with the goal of providing a place for popular culture to act as a springboard to science education, discussion and information. Matt joins co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler to talk about teaching science with pop culture, discuss how this approach can help connect teachers to their students, and share his favorite pop culture references used in his science classroom.

Brian and Dale also talk about the March for Science on Earth Day, 2017.

Show notes at: http://laboutloud.com/2017/04/episode-166-pop-culture-science-education

Fredi Lavjardi teaches marine science at Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix, where he is also coach of Falcon Robotics - an extracurricular high school STEM program that won the 2004 MATE National Underwater ROV championships with their robot "Stinky," besting juggernaut teams such as MIT.  This inspiring story was originally covered by Wired Magazine, expanded by the same author into a book, and graced the silver screen in 2015 as the movie Spare Parts.  Along with other engaging stories, the success of Falcon Robotics is now being featured in the IMAX documentary Dream Big: Engineering Our World.  Using human stories to expose the hidden world behind exciting inventions and structures across the world, Dream Big aims to at bring engineering into the forefront of our culture while inspiring kids of all backgrounds to become the innovators, educators and leaders of the 21st century and beyond.  Fredi joins Lab Out Loud to share more about Falcon Robotics, how STEM education is addressed in his classroom and robotics program, and how schools might better address STEM education for authentic student learning. Listen to the show to be inspired, and then find out where you can experience the Dream Big: Engineering Our World.

Show notes at: http://laboutloud.com/2017/04/episode-165-dream-big/

Co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler recently discovered EO Kids - a web publication that brings engaging science stories from NASA's Earth Observatory to a younger audience. Published with support from NASA's Landsat, Terra, and Aqua missions, EO Kids provides kid-friendly content in a PDF that can be easily downloaded or printed. Each issue of EO Kids also features hands-on activities, experiments and opportunities for students to interact with real data. To learn more about EO Kids, listen to Lab Out Loud as they welcome Editor-in-Chief Ginger Butcher and Managing Editor Tassia Owen to the show.

Show notes: http://laboutloud.com/2017/03/episode-164-eo-kids/

Valerie Bayes joins Lab Out Loud this week to talk about modern agriculture. As the K-12 STEM Outreach Lead for Monsanto, Valerie is busy engaging educators in modern agriculture where cross-cutting concepts like engineering, math, and biology are used to solve important problems in our world today. Through Monsanto's STEM page, Valerie assists educators in finding powerful classroom resources and even helps teachers in obtaining GM seeds for use in the classroom. Valerie joins co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler to share how she got into science outreach, describe Monsanto's educational collaborations, and discuss the connections between STEM and modern agriculture (including drones!).

Show notes at: http://laboutloud.com/2017/03/episode-163-monsanto/

Lab Out Loud’s guest this week is Gary Weimberg, co-director of the PBS documentary “My Love Affair With The Brain: The Life and Science of Dr. Marian Diamond.” Produced and released in collaboration with AAAS and Scientific American, and narrated by The Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik, this upcoming documentary showcases the life and work of engaging professor, inquisitive learner and YouTube sensation Dr. Marian Diamond. Gary joins co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler to discuss the film, reveal how Dr. Diamond’s work challenged assumptions in science and society, and share his beliefs in telling human stories to illustrate how science actually happens. Listen to the show to be inspired by Dr. Diamond’s work and learn how you might use her story in your science classroom and participate in this public engagement in science.

Show notes at: http://laboutloud.com/2017/02/episode-161-my-love-affair-with-the-brain/

Lab Out Loud is proud to welcome David Pogue to the show. As tech critic for Yahoo Tech, correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, and columnist for Scientific American, many listeners might recognize Pogue as host of many NOVA science specials. In 2012, he shared his exploration of the periodic table with the wildly popular NOVA special Hunting the Elements. Now he'd like to continue that story with Beyond the Elements, where he will explore and share the mysteries of the molecular world. But he needs your help. Together with NOVA, Pogue is working hard on a Kickstarter campaign to fund Beyond the Elements. The goals of the campaign start with producing the show and continue with adding classroom resources and possibly a VR experience. David joins Lab Out Loud to talk about science and tech, his work with NOVA, and the Kickstarter project Beyond the Elements. Listen now to learn how to help NOVA and David Pogue produce this new special for families and science classrooms across the nation!

Show notes at: http://laboutloud.com/2017/02/episode-161-nova-kickstarter/

Co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler welcome Zach Kaplan to Lab Out Loud. As founder and CEO of Inventables, Kaplan hopes to inspire and enlist a new wave of makers with tools like Carvey (a desktop 3D carving machine) and Easel (a simple and free cloud-based app for 3D design to carving). In schools, with an increased focus on engineering and a push to include more STEAM classes and Makerspaces, these tools are also providing students with an opportunity to learn career and college ready skills in a hands-on and authentic manner. Zach joins Lab Out Loud to talk about Inventables, the growth of the maker movement, and the future of desktop fabrication and manufacturing.

Show notes at:  http://laboutloud.com/2017/01/carving-into-stem-with-inventables/

Lab Out Loud co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler welcome ecologist & author Caren Cooper to the show.  As an Associate Professor at North Carolina State university, Dr. Cooper also works with the Chancellor's Faculty Excellence Program on Leadership in Public Science.  She is an advocate of citizen science, believing that anyone, anywhere at any time, can help conduct genuine scientific research. In her new book, Citizen Science: How Ordinary People are Changing the Face of Discovery, Dr. Cooper tells the stories of citizen scientists who are challenging assumptions of how and where knowledge can be acquired.  Dr. Cooper joins Lab Out Loud to share some of these stories, along with ideas and resources on how educators might engage their students in creating new knowledge from the world around them.

Show notes at: http://laboutloud.com/2017/01/episode-159-citizen-science/

In this special On the Lookout installment of Lab Out Loud, co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler explore another device in the world of desktop fabrication as they recently tested out Carvey - a tabletop 3D carving machine from Inventables. Right out of the box, they discovered Carvey to be a remarkably easy to use tool appropriate for younger learners. Solidly built, Carvey’s small footprint can easily sit on a tabletop, and features an enclosed frame that keeps the workspace relatively clean and safe. Of course, Carvey’s reach extends well beyond the science classroom, and will function as a savvy tool that any STEAM program or Makerspace could rely upon for hands-on student learning. Listen to Lab Out Loud (and watch their unbox video) to see how this new digital manufacturing tool can allow students to transform their digital creations into physical, everyday objects.

Show notes at: http://laboutloud.com/2016/12/episode-158-carvey/