Saturday, June 1, 2013

Audacity + Podcast = Student Narrated Field Trip

I am a high school science teacher and wanted to take my Astronomy class to downtown KC to walk the scale model of the solar system located starting at 13th Street and Baltimore stretching to Union Station.  Before the field trip, each student was assigned a planet or object/aspect of the solar system to research. They then recorded a 2-3 minute podcast (using Audacity) detailing some teacher specified information and other information they thought was interesting.  I compiled all the individual files in the order in which they would walk the scale model and had them download the completed podcast to mp3 players or iPods.  Audacity is easy to use and allowed me to create a transition between segments that could just be copied and pasted where needed. At each location along the model, students stopped and listened to their classmate's explanation - lots more engaging than listening to me! We all learned something new about the solar system, were entertained by even the quiet students :), and had a productive and informative field trip.  I can imagine this approach working for a museum trip, a nature trail walk, etc. 

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