In this day and age, podcasting can be an important tool to use in the classroom. Students can create their own and even listen to podcasts relevant to what they are learning in school. While I was browsing Podcast Pickle, I came across a Podcaster named "The Drug Guy." This name itself made me click to see what types of podcasts he made. The main emphasis of his podcasts was information on drugs that teens should know. A podcast that I found interesting and thought could be used in the classroom was titled "Energy Drinks - What Are the Risks?"
"Energy Drinks - What Are the Risks?" could be used in a high school drug and health class or a science class. This podcast simply outlines how energy drinks are not only unhealthy due to their sugar content and how they often dehydrate rather than rehydrate, but it also goes into further details on how it contains the drug caffeine, and the effects this drug has on the body.
There are a variety of ways to use this podcast in the classroom. One way I would use it would be to help students to realize that caffeine actually is a drug. From this podcast, students could learn just what caffeine can do and how energy drinks contain this drug, which can be very harmful. A follow-up activity for a science class would be to present students with a variety of brands of energy drinks. They would then be given the task to analyze the ingredients (how much sugar, how much caffeine) of each brand of energy drink. Students would then have to draw conclusions on which energy drink was the most harmful (had the most sugar/caffeine) and which energy drink was the least harmful (has the least amount of sugar/caffeine). This podcast and lesson activity would serve not only to inform, but also would engage students as many high school students drink these beverages. To further integrate technology and podcasting, students could then create their own podcasts of their results and post them online.
To view the "Energy Drinks - What Are the Risks?" Podcast, click below:
To view more podcasts by "The Drug Guy," view the link below:
To view and browse additional podcasts, visit Podcast Pickle:
