Best Secondary Science Podcasts (2024)

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155. How to Create Active and Accountable Learners in Your Secondary Science Classroom 34:29

3h ago34:29

34:29

Over the past several years, one of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from teachers is the lack of student apathy that exists in post-pandemic students. I’ve addressed this topic on the podcast before by the ways of classroom management and building resilience in students. And while those are important to tackling the problem, I want to share a new…

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154. AI and Chat GPT With Guest Mitch Wieland 34:49

4d ago34:49

34:49

If you’ve been around long enough, you know just how quickly technology changes and advances. But one of the most resourceful and useful technology tools out there is AI. AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is quickly becoming how our world plans vacations, assists us with our work demands, and even plans lessons and activities for our students. And wh…

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153. How to Make Boring Topics More Engaging 26:47

11d ago26:47

26:47

Even though you may love the science discipline you teach, that doesn’t mean that you’re excited to teach every topic, let alone your students enjoying everything you teach. Unfortunately, there are certain topics that are considered boring but still need to be taught! Knowing the topics that are deemed boring for you, how can you turn those around…

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152. Absences - How to Deal With Them 34:58

18d ago34:58

34:58

There are many elements of teaching that are unpredictable and out of your control, which can make it difficult to handle or prepare for. One of those things are student absences. Let’s be honest, it’s a miracle when all of your students are in class on the same day! So, you need to prepare and determine how you’re going to deal with the absences o…

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151. Ask Me Anything! Part 2: Differentiated Instruction, Difficult Conversations, Work/Life Balance, and More! 43:58

25d ago43:58

43:58

I love celebrating podcast milestones with my listeners so much that I couldn’t celebrate with just one episode! Last week, I hit 150 episodes and decided to answer questions sent to me from listeners. Although I covered a variety of different topics, I received so many questions that I needed to do another episode to answer them all. So, in part 2…

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150. Ask Me Anything! Part 1: Difficult Coworkers, Engaging Labs, Classroom Management Strategies, and More! 41:40

1M ago41:40

41:40

Wow, y’all, I can’t believe I’m at episode 150! I’m always amazed at all we cover on the podcast, so I like to celebrate every 50 episodes with a “Dear Abby” style episode. Since I started this podcast to reach and support more teachers, I want to make sure I’m giving y’all exactly what you need to succeed. So, in today’s episode, I’m answering all…

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149. Teaching on a Block Schedule - Why It’s Not as Bad as You Think 16:54

1M ago16:54

16:54

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been discussing how to cover all of your content in so little time. And while every teacher feels like they’re limited on time, if you teach on a block schedule, you actually have the least amount of instructional time in a school year. If you’re someone who teaches on a block schedule, you’re probably thinking about w…

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148. When You Have Too Much to Do and Too Little Time 15:56

2M ago15:56

15:56

I know it's early in the school year, but at some point this year, you're going to ask yourself, "How am I going to get through all of this content before the end of the year?" And if I'm being completely honest, you're probably not. While that might seem harsh or pessimistic, that's unfortunately the reality. I'd love to be able to give you practi…

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147. Content Coverage - How to Get Through All of the Standards 25:49

2M ago25:49

25:49

I don't have to tell you all how much is on your plates and everything you have to deal with as teachers on a daily basis. You're constantly juggling student behaviors, building relationships, parent communication, feedback and professional development from your administration and district, and so much more. But with all of those, one of the things…

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146. How to Nail Your Next Observation - Planned or Unannounced 28:21

2M ago28:21

28:21

I remember being a new teacher and feeling nervous and panicked every time an administrator came into my room for an observation, either formal or informal. I had a pit in my stomach and wondered if I was doing what they wanted or anything right. However, as time went on, I got used to observations and actually welcomed the opportunity to have othe…

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145. How to Build Resilience in Students Post-Pandemic 26:43

2M ago26:43

26:43

I always tailor my podcast episodes towards topics that I know my listeners need, ask for, and would find helpful in a secondary science classroom. Today’s topic is one I know will resonate with y’all, which is seeing a lack of resilience in your students. Teachers are constantly struggling with this issue, so I’ve worked to find solutions and come…

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144. 4 Ways Having “No Rules” Has Changed My Life (And Could Change Your School Year) 23:44

3M ago23:44

23:44

In the past, I’ve always chosen a word of the year to help guide what I want for myself, my family, and my career in the upcoming year. However, this year, I chose a mental mindset for the year, which was “no rules.” I was so used to finding efficient ways to run my business and classroom when I was in it that I wanted to make a change and make dec…

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143. My Top 5 Favorite Teacher Hacks for the New School Year 26:34

3M ago26:34

26:34

Whether you’ve been in school mode for a while or are still enjoying your summer, I always try to spend August helping teachers prepare for the upcoming school year. We all know how stressful and demanding the year can be, so I wanted to really be intentional about finding ways that were super helpful and simplify your life as a secondary science t…

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142. Reflections From a First-Year AP Teacher With Guest Laura Tice 48:19

3M ago48:19

48:19

I’ve talked many times about my experience teaching AP science courses before, and I even did an entire series talking to teachers who teach various AP science disciplines, so y’all know how challenging it can be. However, think about if you’re still a beginning teacher and being thrown into teaching an AP course. That’s what happened to my guest o…

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141. First Day of School Tips + What I Cover in My First Units of the Year 33:28

3M ago33:28

33:28

It’s hard to believe that the start of another school year is just around the corner, which means that planning for the first day of school and your first units is starting to take place. The first day of school can sometimes feel chaotic, and teachers are often unsure what they should even be covering on that day. So, to help those teachers out, I…

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140. 5 Tips for Teaching Chemistry 28:43

4M ago28:43

28:43

With the school year quickly approaching, many teachers are getting their jobs and starting to figure out what science courses they’ll be teaching. And if you see chemistry on your course list, you might be hitting the freak-out button! Especially as a new teacher, chemistry can be intimidating to teach, but it also gives a lot of fun and freedom t…

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139. Sunday Scaries - How I Use Friday Planning to Prevent Them 17:52

4M ago17:52

17:52

These days, I'm all about doing things now that serve my future self. In last week's episode, I shared five principles I do in my business that serve my future self and how they can translate to the classroom. However, since those principles might serve you next month, quarter, or even school year, I wanted to share an immediate benefit for your fu…

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138. Serving Future You - How to Work Smarter, Not Harder 29:56

4M ago29:56

29:56

I frequently think about how much the principles I've learned from running a business (and parenting) have changed my perspective on teaching. This got me thinking about what I would implement based on what I know now if I ever return to the classroom. And whenever I realize something useful and helpful, I want to share it with y'all! So, in today'…

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137. Work/Life Balance as a Mom and AP Teacher With Guest Kimberly Leary 45:10

4M ago45:10

45:10

As teachers, we know how hard it is to manage and balance our work and personal lives. But when you add being a new mom and an AP teacher to the mix, it makes that even harder. We’re always looking for tips and secrets to find that balance. My guest on today’s episode, Kimberly Leary, just might have figured it out! In today’s episode, Kimberly is …

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136. Building a Team Mindset Into Your Classroom Culture 21:34

4M ago21:34

21:34

When I was a classroom teacher without any kids, I had no idea of the correlation or commonality that being a parent and a teacher would have. Now, being a parent, I would do some things differently and have a different lens on, which is why I’ve loved doing this series on things I’ve learned from parenting that can apply to teaching. In this episo…

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135. Using Anticipatory Conversations to Diffuse Classroom Chaos 25:40

5M ago25:40

25:40

If you’ve been listening each week, you know that this month, I’ve been doing a special series where I’ve reflected on things I’ve done and learned as a parent and how they can transfer to the classroom. I’ve been surprised by how much is transferable and have loved hearing your responses to these ideas as well. Today’s topic is something I’ve talk…

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134. Prioritizing Relationships Over Being Right 18:59

5M ago18:59

18:59

As you all know, my outlook and perspective on life are usually black and white. Especially when it came to teaching, I gave clear rules and procedures that needed to be followed in my classroom. However, when I became a parent to three children, my perspective started to shift and change. This got me thinking about how what I’ve learned through pa…

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133. Using Refrains When Teaching 30:39

5M ago30:39

30:39

If you openly ask your students, What’s something I say often? You might be surprised by their answers or know exactly what they’d say. I know when I was in the classroom, there were certain phrases that I was known for saying and that I repeated to emphasize certain behaviors or life skills I wanted my students to learn. Now as a parent, I’m doing…

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132. End-of-Year Personal Reflection - 6 Questions to Ask Yourself 16:25

5M ago16:25

16:25

I love taking the time to reflect both professionally and personally because it helps me grow as a teacher and as a person. So when I was in the classroom, I made it a habit to spend some time at the end of the school year to reflect on how the year went. In last week’s episode, I had you reflect on your instructional resources in order to help pre…

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131. End-of-Year Resource Audit 23:30

6M ago23:30

23:30

With the end of the school year quickly approaching, your mind is on summer, relaxing, and taking a break from school. The last thing you probably want to do is start thinking about next school year. However, that’s exactly what I want you to do! While everything is still fresh in your mind, it’s important to take the time to reflect on the year an…

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130. First Year Teaching? 5 Things I Wish I Had Known 20:43

6M ago20:43

20:43

Something that I remember so vividly is my first year teaching. I was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and couldn’t wait to have my own classroom and make it my own. I had wanted this for so long that I was ready to jump in and do all that I could to be the best teacher I could be. And while that sounds like the right thing, it actually made me tired, st…

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129. 4 Things I Learned From Other Teachers That Changed How I Teach 24:19

6M ago24:19

24:19

As a former secondary science teacher, I know how hard y’all work and plan to create meaningful lessons and activities for your students and are always striving to do what’s best for them. That’s why whenever Teacher Appreciation Week rolls around, I want to take time to say thank you and appreciate the teachers in my life, which includes you! To h…

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128. Admin Appreciation - The Best Ways My Admin Ever Supported Me 24:18

6M ago24:18

24:18

A group of people who are educators who don’t always get a lot of credit but also put in a lot of work are administrators. And with National Administration Appreciation Day a few days ago, I wanted to take some time to give some praise and kudos to those administrators who are trustworthy, support teachers, and care about the students in their scho…

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127. Teaching AP Chemistry With Guest Zach Matson 1:27:34

7M ago1:27:34

1:27:34

We’ve made it to our final episode in our AP science teacher interview series, and I’ve saved the best for last! When I sent out a survey several months ago, y’all requested to have him make another guest appearance, so here he is, Zach Matson! Teaching AP Chemistry for several decades, he has gained so much experience, knowledge, and tips that are…

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126. Teaching AP Environmental Science With Guest Ashton Allgood 45:51

7M ago45:51

45:51

I’ve had so much fun and really enjoyed listening to my guest science teachers during my AP science teacher interview series. Each guest has given incredible insight about the AP exam and helpful tips for other teachers in their respective science disciplines. But out of all the AP science courses, I received the most questions about teaching AP En…

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125. Teaching AP Biology With Guest Beth Hines 1:02:34

7M ago1:02:34

1:02:34

As we move forward with focusing on the different AP science classes, this week, we’re focusing on AP Biology. This class comes with a lot of content, material, reading, and prior background knowledge to help students succeed and prepare for the end-of-year AP exam. I’m so lucky to have guest Beth Hines be the expert on this class since she is a ve…

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124. Teaching AP Physics With Guest Laura Preiser 54:45

7M ago54:45

54:45

It’s the beginning of April, and with the spring air around us, it reminds me of something fresh and new, so I decided to start a new series about teaching different AP sciences. Even though in my podcast episodes, I share ideas and strategies that will benefit all classes, I get a lot of questions targeted specifically toward teaching an AP class.…

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123. What to Do When You Care More Than Your Students Do 28:41

7M ago28:41

28:41

As educators, we decided to make this our career because we love to help people and care about students and their success. However, just because that’s our personality and mission, unfortunately, doesn’t mean that’s how our students feel. One of the resounding themes from the survey I sent out was how do I get my students to care as much as I do? I…

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122. How to Nail Your Teacher Job Interview + 3 Mock Lesson Ideas 33:37

8M ago33:37

33:37

In last week’s episode, I asked you to examine your current job situation to see if there were more things causing you stress than things that brought you joy. One solution might be changing your scenery, such as switching schools or even districts, which would mean a teacher interview is in your future. Or even if you’re a beginning teacher lookin…

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121. Burned Out? When It’s Time to Make a Change 28:28

8M ago28:28

28:28

It’s no secret that teachers are constantly overwhelmed and stressed and often don’t feel appreciated for their work. Especially during this time of year, it can be hard to determine if the exhaustion you’re feeling is just temporary or a feeling that won’t go away. Trust me, I’ve been exactly where you’re at and want to help. So, in today’s episod…

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120. How to Cut Your Grading Time in Half 26:26

8M ago26:26

26:26

Everyone is trying to achieve a work-life balance, but for teachers, that simple concept is actually very complicated. One of the reasons teachers struggle so much with having a life outside of school is the amount of grading that we have to do. While I’m biased, I believe secondary science teachers have the most grading, especially with the labs a…

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119. Increasing Retention - How to Get Students to Remember Dense Topics 26:40

8M ago26:40

26:40

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - the reason I do this podcast is for you! I love sharing ideas, strategies, activities, and curriculum with you that help make your science classrooms more successful. This is why I reached out to you to hear what questions you had for me or for your science classrooms. So, for the next few months, I’ll b…

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118. CER: What It Is, and Why I Never Explicitly Taught It 9:43

9M ago9:43

9:43

If you’ve been in education long enough, you know that new acronyms and ideas are constantly being tossed out there. Once these ideas are presented, schools and districts want them implemented, which results in teachers stressing about incorporating them into their lessons. But in reality, teachers are already doing a lot of these ideas; they’re ju…

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117. How to Prep for a Long-Term Substitute Who Doesn’t Teach Science 20:16

9M ago20:16

20:16

We’ve all had someone who isn’t trained in our subject area be a substitute in our class before, but only for just a day or two, and we survived. But when it’s for an extended period of time, that’s when planning can get challenging. This episode is more than for those going on maternity leave. Most of us don’t anticipate when we need to go on exte…

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116. Behind Schedule? What to Do and How to Prevent It in the Future 32:00

9M ago32:00

32:00

No matter what subject or grade you teach or how long you’ve been teaching, you have been behind schedule at least at one point in your career. Trust me, I’ve been there, and it is stressful! Especially if you have an end-of-year test that you’re preparing for. But instead of feeling overwhelmed, in today’s episode, I’m sharing ways to assess why y…

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115. How to Act Confident When You’re Not 15:58

9M ago15:58

15:58

If you’re a beginning teacher or teaching a new prep for the first time, everyone’s advice is always to fake it till you make it! We’re conditioned to believe that you need to project confidence to show your students that you’re qualified to be their teacher. But is that narrative what’s best for your students? I’ve had many conversations with teac…

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114. How to Bounce Back After You Mess Up 27:53

10M ago27:53

27:53

Have you ever made a mistake in your classroom? Or handled a situation differently that caused more problems or regretted how you handled it? I am raising my hand high in the air! Even though it feels like you’re the only teacher something like this has ever happened to, in reality, you’re not alone. I received an email a few months back that reson…

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113. What to Do When You Have No Energy - Truths for the Classroom 12:17

10M ago12:17

12:17

If you are anything like I was in the classroom, this time of year is when I often felt the most drained, with little energy. The excitement of break seems so far away; it’s dark, and the days seem never-ending. And while I can’t change any of those things for you, I can give you some encouragement to make it through. Similar to last week’s episode…

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112. What to Do When You Have No Energy - Systems for the Home 25:19

10M ago25:19

25:19

With the demands of teaching, we often come home with no energy but are faced with the demands of our home life as well. And just like we have routines put in place to make things easier at school, we can do the same when we’re at home. So, in today’s episode, I’m sharing my best systems for the home that will help you maximize your energy from the…

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111. Priorities and Boundaries in the New Year 24:46

10M ago24:46

24:46

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you were able to unplug over this winter break and recharge so you can tackle the last semester of the school year. Since the start of a new year is the perfect time to hit the reset button, I really wanted to start the year off by assessing where you are in life, what your priorities are, and the types of boundarie…

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110. How to Manage a Classroom of Apathetic Students 43:12

11M ago43:12

43:12

It’s officially the last week of 2023, so I wanted to end the year with the most listened to episode from the year. It was no surprise to me that my interview with Casey O’Hearn was the top episode because of his approach to teaching, his philosophies, and his outlook on how to interact and connect with his students. Adapting to teach in a post-pan…

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109. 10 Questions to Ask Yourself as You Reflect Over Your Course Sequence 32:53

11M ago32:53

32:53

As I mentioned last week, I’m taking the last weeks of December to replay my top three episodes of the year based on your listens and downloads. I was shocked that this original episode was number two, but so excited because it’s something I’m passionate about, which is curriculum design, specifically strategizing your sequence. This was the first …

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108. 5 Must-Have Routines and Procedures for Secondary Teachers 30:03

11M ago30:03

30:03

Happy December, y’all! The one word that describes my life right now, which might describe yours as well, is frantic. So, I thought for the rest of the month, we’d revisit episodes from this past year that can either be good reminders for you during this last month of school or ideas you need to think about or reinforce when you return from break i…

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107. NGSS and Standards-Based Grading With Guest Boni Hamilton 58:55

11M ago58:55

58:55

You all know that I want to bring you as much information and perspectives on a topic as possible. With last week’s episode on standards-based grading being a new idea and way of grading for some of you, I wanted to bring on another teacher who has years of experience implementing this in her classroom. Boni Hamilton, a friend and experienced teach…

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106. Standards-Based Grading, Citizenship Grades, Motivation and MORE With Guest Jennica Harrison 59:28

11M ago59:28

59:28

I love talking about science content, curriculum, engaging activities, and practical strategies you can implement in your own classroom. But when my audience inquires about topics I’m not so sure about, I bring in experts who can share their knowledge. That’s exactly what I did when it came to discussing standards-based grading. My guest on today’s…

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Secondary Science Podcasts

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