High School Science Highlights

At the halfway point of Season One of the Science Fare podcast, let’s have a listen to this special High School Science highlights episode — a collection of clips from previous episodes when the scientists link their work to the high school science learning standards. We have Hashim Al-Hashimi (Episodes 1 and 2) talking about how complexity evolves, Jamie Morton (Episodes 3 and 4) talking about the scientific process and feedback in biological systems, and Kelly Knudson (Episode 5 and 6) talking about how strontium gets into bones.

Specific timestamps:

*Hashim Al-Hashimi: New York state high school curriculum in Life Sciences disciplinary core idea: “Although DNA replication is tightly regulated and remarkably accurate, errors do occur and result in mutations which are also a source of genetic variation.” How can we think about mutations and the evolution of variation in terms of a sweet spot between evolutionary fitness and peril? [2:10]

*Jamie Morton: In the Maryland state high school curriculum under the topic of The Nature of Science, students are expected to master the idea that “scientific inquiry is characterized by a common set of values that include logical thinking, precision, open-mindedness, objectivity, skepticism, replicability of results, and honest and ethical reporting of findings.” How did the study on autism and microbiome incorporate some of these values? [9:50]

*Jamie Morton: Also in the Maryland state high school curriculum, we have the Life Science learning standard that says, “Feedback mechanisms maintain a living system’s internal conditions within certain limits and mediate behaviors allowing it to remain alive and functional even as external conditions change within some range. Feedback mechanisms can encourage through positive feedback or discourage through negative feedback what is going on inside the living system.” Can we talk about the microbiome and autism in these terms? [14:25]

*Kelly Knudson: In the Arizona state high school curriculum, in the Chemistry section of the learning standards, students are asked to “explain how the structure of atoms relates to patterns and properties observed within the periodic table.” How does the way Strontium gets into bones relate to this idea? [17:30]

*Available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google, or wherever you typically listen