Grades 9-12 Podcats

The iTunes store is a very useful place. I downloaded two video podcasts for education from the iTunesU. The two podcasts that I chose to view were high school level, grades 9-12. The first podcast that I watched was Function of Sleep. The seconds podcast was Frozen Frogs. I found both podcasts very interesting, but I like the one about frogs the best.


The Function of Sleep podcast was a video about sleep. The researchers think that sleep and memory are connected . They believe that when people and animals sleep they are process things that went on that day. So they performed a test ran on a rats. The rat on the video was wearing a hat that had wires about the size of hair connected to its brain. They put the rat on a maze were he would find his way to the center and each time it would receive chocolate syrup. The rat continued to go round and round the maze. The researchers were viewing the activity of the rat's brain during the maze. After the maze, the view the function of the brain during the rat's sleep. The function of the brain was similar during the maze and during sleep. But during sleep the brain was functioning a lot faster than when it was in the maze. It was as if the rat was remembering certain images from earlier in the maze. Two different parts of the brain was functioning. The part of the brain for long term memory was functioning during the rat's sleep. The researchers think that this helps them to believe that people and animals are processing memory. But this is all speculation. I liked this podcast, but I was not very comfortable seeing the hat on the rat. The video announced that is was painless putting it on so that made me feel better about the animal.

The second podcast was Frozen Frogs. It was about North American Wood frogs during the winter. The camouflage themselves. When it gets cold at the first touch of an ice crystal, it sets off signals that pulls water from the center of the body. The frogs internal organs will be rapped in a puddle of water and then it turns to solid ice. The is no function of the frog's organs. No breathing. No kidney function. No heartbeat. The frog is completely frozen for a long period of time. The frog is not dead, but it is about as close as it could get. It feels like a rock. The blood sugar of the frog acts like an antifreeze until the spring time. The frogs begins to thaw and within a day the frog will come back to life. The inside starts first and then the outside follows. It all happens in the right order each year. I really liked this podcast. I like to learn about different animals and I found this kind of unbelievable. This was really good information about frogs. Do you know that this happened to frog?

Even though both of the podcasts I downloaded dwelt with Science, I think that video podcasts could be very useful in my Mathematics class. I think that podcasts would really help Math students. Each and every type of Math class could use podcasts, whether it be Geometry, Algebra, or Calculus.

I could post podcasts on many different things in my class. I could do different videos on how to solve problems, definitions of the words, theorems, different rules in Math, and many other things . My students could download the podcasts to help them while at home. They could provide their parents with information if they are trying to help their child. I think I will be willing to use podcast in my class. I think it would help my students especially if I was no available at that certain time.