60-Second Science

 

Scientific American offers 60-Second Science -- short (60-second!) podcasts on science topics. I think this could be good for students in middle school or high school:

1. The stories are interesting.
2. Students can build general knowledge.
3. The stories would expose students to good vocabulary words and crisp writing.
4. Students can read the stories at the same time they listen, to help with pronunciation, vocabulary, and comprehension.
5. They're short! Teens who say they don't have time to read books can hardly say they don't have time to listen to a one-minute story once in a while.

The podcasts are about many different science subjects, for example:

• The human body (Better Bitter Tasters Bust Bacteria)
• Environmental engineering (Low-Tech Wastewater Treatment Recipe Features Onions)
• Wildlife (Bird Nest Ciggy Butts Lower Parasite Load), (Scats Reveal Gorilla Diet Stats)
• Psychology (Deeper-Voiced Women Have Election Advantage)
• Archaeology (Humans Said Cheese 7,500 Years Ago), (Cave Artists Had Leg Up on Moderns)
• The water cycle (Mercury Dumped in Ocean Returns in Fog)
• Mechanical engineering (Shock Absorber Dampens Baseball Bat Stings)
• Paleontology (Sauropod Neck Bones Were Really Tendons)

If you can't talk your students into reading books at home, try challenging them to listen to and read some of these. (Even if they do read books, you can suggest the podcasts as a garnish.) Later, you can have a conversation about what they listened to and learned.