The 30 Second Science Podcast Current Events Homework – Monthly
Once a month, on a Thursday or Friday (depending on the schedule) you will be responsible for this assignment. Each week we will hear from 5 people. A schedule will be posted in the classroom each month, with a chance to choose your week.
The 30 Second Science Podcast
This homework is modeled after the 60 Second Science Podcast from Scientific American. In this podcast leading science journalists provide a daily minute of commentary on some of the most interesting developments in the world of science.
You have two (2) choices for information sources:
• Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American
o (http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/podcasts.cfm?type=science-talk)
o feed://rss.sciam.com/sciam/science-talk
• Science News – Up to the minute and features from Science
o http://news.sciencemag.org/
o feed://news.sciencemag.org/rss/current.xml
Here’s what you need to do:
1. Use the sources above to find a topic that interests you — it could be about something exciting, a cool scientist, something confusing, or almost anything that is published, or even a recent experiment that we have done.
2. Write a 30 second commentary of the topic chosen that will be read aloud to the class explaining what you have learned.
30 seconds of reading is about 80-110 words, so aim for about 90 words.
3. Practice your reading and time yourself so that it does not go over 30 seconds.
4. Present your reading to the class
5. Turn in your written script. Must be typed.
6. Email the typed entry to Mr. Brewer on Wednesday of the week that you present.
7. If you are able, please record yourself reading, so that it can be shared with others on a blog. This should be turned in an MP3 file.
[1] Mr. Brewer does have premium access to the full text articles from Science magazine online. If you want access to an article you will need to ask him for the login and password by sending him the link and he will send you the full text via email.
Mr Brewer's Blog 