Creating My Own Podcast

The podcast that I created is a mini lesson in 6th grade Earth science discussing the composition of the Earth, plate tectonics, and forces such as volcanos and earthquakes. In the audio podcast I talk about the layers of the Earth, the material they're made of, and how convection in the mantle causes plate movement in the crust. The video podcast discusses different types of plate movement including divergence, convergence between ocean and continent, convergence between two continents, and shearing, and the volcanos, earthquakes, and mountains that can result from these movements. I illustrated these concepts using images I found online which included diagrams of the types of plate movements and photos that show the results of these movements in real life, including volcanos in Iceland, the Mid-Ocean Ridge, the Andes Mountains, the Himalayan Mountains, and the San Andreas Fault. This lesson addresses three GLCEs from 6th grade science: E.SE.06.51 Explain plate tectonic movement and how the lithospheric plates move centimeters each year, E.SE.06.52 Demonstrate how major geological events (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mountain building) result from these plate motions, E.SE.06.53 Describe layers of the Earth as a lithosphere (crust and upper mantle), convecting mantle, and dense metallic core.

Using a class blog or wiki, podcasting can be a very useful tool for teachers to create audio tracks or short videos for their students that can serve as study tools leading up to tests or as review of difficult concepts. In some of the blogs I've looked at I've seen teachers film themselves solving math problems on the board and then posting these videos as podcasts. Such videos would be useful to students if they were struggling with a certain concept in math to help them review the lesson multiple times to review and increase their understanding. Teachers could also create podcasts that simulate a spelling test to allow students to prepare for the actual test. And they can obviously be used the way I've shown here to explain information in science that a student might need some review on. This similar concept could easily be used in social studies as well. Parents of students could also subscribe to a teacher's podcast to get updates on what goes on in their child's classroom. I can see lots of uses for podcasts in my future classroom as another method of sharing information, however in this case audio and video are used to present the information instead of written text. For students who like listening better than reading, podcasting may be a good way of reaching out to them and help them understand information better.