Episodes
Feb. 7, 2023
Ep. 75 - Prepping High School Students for Medical School (and life) with Dr. Sanjay Sharma
Sanjay Sharma MD (Harvard University), MSc, FRCS, MBA is a retinal specialist who is a professor of ophthalmology at Queen’s University.
He is an internationally renowned eye surgeon, and has treated over 250,000 patients. Dr. Sharma is a...
Jan. 31, 2023
Ep. 74 - Diving into the Great Barrier Reef with Dr. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
I would consider listening to this episode in one of two ways: either at a time when you can take it all in at once, or in junks over a period of time. The reason is because I believe this episode represents the essence of what I consider to be the...
Jan. 16, 2023
Ep. 73 - Teaching Outside the Box with James Maynard
James Maynard publishes The Cosmic Companion, a multimedia news outlet covering astronomy and space exploration from around the globe.
Growing up, science and art were always encouraged in the house, and James quickly fell in love with reading the...
Jan. 14, 2023
Ep. 72 - A Discussion About Blueshift (Pt 7 of 7)
I always tell my students that school's greatest purpose is to tell you the questions, NOT the answers. If a student has studied cosmology, they have become an interesting person that can now engage in some brilliant conversations and ask probing...
Jan. 13, 2023
Ep. 71 - The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (Pt 6 of 7)
The CMBR discovery was the reason Penzias and Wilson won the Nobel Prize. It truly was that year's greatest scientific discovery. And to think that Robert Dicke was actively looking for it at the same time as their accidental discovery is one of the...
Jan. 12, 2023
Ep. 70 - Georges LeMaitre and Fred Hoyle (Pt 5 of 7)
At times I feel that this "intro" to cosmology is almost TOO intro! It's hard to do justice to the complexity of a century of inquiry in just a few minutes. But these episodes are really designed to lead you to the main "players" in the game. And the...
Jan. 11, 2023
Ep. 69 - What's a Parsec? (Pt 4 of 7)
Here we go with part 4! I hope you're learning a lot and that the discussion is prompting you to dig deeper and explore this fascinating field of cosmology.
A parsec (a term used incorrectly by Hans Solo in Star Wars - A New Hope) is a unit of...
Jan. 10, 2023
Ep. 68 - Cepheid Variables (Pt 3 of 7)
This is a tricky concept to grasp when hearing about it for the first time. I'll again point out that the same clip can be found on my YouTube channel, Science 360 - Beyond the Sky. It contains visuals that may make it easier:...
Jan. 9, 2023
Ep. 67 - Edwin Hubble's Discoveries (Pt 2 of 7)
This is the second in the 7 part series on Cosmology, designed to help you, the teacher, feel better and more confident in bringing this topic to your science classes.
The video verison of this episode can be found on my YouTube channel, Science 360...
Jan. 8, 2023
Ep. 66 - Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity (Pt 1 of 7)
This is part 1 of a 7 part series on cosmology. I've put this together as a teacher resource, for anyone out there who is asked to teach about the Big Bang Theory, the origin of the universe, modern cosmology...but just doesn't know where to start....
Jan. 8, 2023
Ep. 65 - Introduction to Cosmology: A Series
Here I introduce a 7 part series that is designed to teach you, the teacher, a few things about the Big Bang Theory and what we might call modern cosmology for high school.
I'm often asked for teaching strategies or class assignments for astronomy....
Dec. 19, 2022
Ep. 64 - Prepping for a Discussion on Climate Change with Dr. Krys Chutko
Dr. Chutko is a professor of Environmental Science at the University of Saskatchewan. He teaches courses in Environmental Systems, Weather and Global Climate Change. And he doesn't limit himself to the university either, but regularly gets out to the...
Dec. 12, 2022
Ep. 63 - Kids' Chemical Solutions with Dr. Colleen Kelley
Think chemistry is boring? Think again! Dr. Colleen Kelley has created a chemistry comic book
series filled with colorful characters and exciting storylines that translate complex chemistry into animated mysteries. Her comics and unique imagination...
Nov. 28, 2022
Ep. 62 - Hope Dies Last with Maria Vamvalis
Maria Vamvalis is a doctoral candidate and instructor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto) where she is researching climate justice pedagogies that nurture learner well-being. She is a former public school...
Nov. 14, 2022
Ep. 61 - Planet Bonehead's Optimistic Message with Bobby Donohue
How do you take a solid background in engineering and design; combine it with creativity in writing, art, and music; and use it to solve the problems you see in education and environmentalism? If you’re Bobby Donohue, then you make a cartoon about...
Nov. 8, 2022
Ep. 60 - Teaching To the Human-Storied Brain with Dr. Sandy Bonny
Sandy Marie Bonny is a writer, visual artist, and earth scientist (PhD 2007, UAlberta; MSc 2002, UAlberta; BSc 2000, UBC) whose creative practice is grounded in interdisciplinary perspectives and engages the storied media of paper, pigment, and stone....
Oct. 31, 2022
Ep. 59 - Soundscapes with Tara-Lynn Kozma-Perrin
This was a really neat discussion as it centred on something that I’ve never directly thought about. However, it is something that I’ve noticed and that is soundscapes. I’ve never referred to sounds as a soundscape, but after talking with Tara-Lynne,...
Oct. 25, 2022
Ep. 58 - From Ocean Anxiety to Agency with Scott Bohachyk
I had the chance recently to sit down with Scott Bohachyk. He’s the Youth Director at Oceanwise which is a non-profit conservation organization inspiring action to conserve our oceans. They describe themselves as an organization whose vision is a...
Aug. 23, 2022
Ep. 57 - Everything Space with Bill Burnyeat
Wow! This one has a lot of information in it. We get into all kinds of things about space and teaching astronomy. You may want to take notes!! If you like space, want to learn more OR if you teach science with an astronomy unit, then this one is for...
July 1, 2022
Ep. 56 - Being Intentional About Wellness
In this episode, rather than interviewing a teacher from our school, I read a blog I wrote for the Teach Better Team. I'm sharing it as a word of encouragement and maybe a touch of "I needed that". I hope you have a wonderful summer and here's a few...
May 9, 2022
Ep. 55 - Talking Science Education with Becky Schnekser and Holly Stuart
One of the wonderful things about the PLN is getting to expand your horizons and meet teachers from all sorts of places. It was through connections, largely coming out of my work with the Teach Better Team, that I "met" Becky and Holly. Being super...
April 16, 2022
Ep. 54 - Burning Bright (not out) with Jess LeBlanc
One thing we can all use right now is a comforting conversation about stress (is that an oxymoron?) and stress management strategies. The comforting part is that the strategies are not actually that difficult. Jess LeBlanc explains why.
The world...
April 4, 2022
Ep. 53 - Reimagining Education with Grade 12 Student Callum Neily
In this episode, I discuss the highs and the lows, the pros and the cons, the areas for growth for schools with my guest, Callum Neily. Callum is a grade 12 student in my school and if you listen long enough, you will hear that he is an asset to our...
March 26, 2022
Ep. 52 - Salmon Talk with Chris Hall
This is a re-run of my first interview on Science360, from back in the spring of 2020. I've been re-listening to a few of these and I really feel they hold a lot of value, but most of my listeners won't have heard the older episodes.
In this talk,...