Podcasting in Science Class?

We recently got an email about an NPR competition where you could make a podcast with your students.  Now I don't know if you knew this about me, but I really want to make a podcast.  My sister and I have been working on a crafting podcast, and I feel like it would be a great way to do some cool educational stuff.  The competition is about either having the kids do the interviewing or to interview kids or something like that.  Basically, with your students, make a podcast.

And this led me to thinking: how else can I use podcasting?  So I did a little research, and the NPR website had some helpful links and ideas.  However, I found it a little disheartening to see that their lessons were like an hour to 40 minutes long each, and I realized they were designed for elementary school students assuming they didn't have any idea of what a podcast is.  I'm assuming my students have seen/heard of one before, so that barrier doesn't super exist. 

The next level of research was to try and find lesson ideas.  Here's where stuff gets crappy.  There are tons of ideas for language, English and History teachers, which makes sense.  Those are classes where you sometimes have to put yourself in the place of characters or imagine living in a different time and place.  Science can be like that, but that's not usually what or how we evaluate student learning.  So I'm coming up with my own list of ideas for having students use podcasting in my class, and I want to try a few of them out.

• Instead of writing out arguments, record them
• Research on a topic and share it out
• Give results of an experiment
• Share out about a volunteer experience (specific to something like APES or Environmental Science)
• Interview family members about energy usage or for some kind of genetics project
• Observing a physical concept in daily life 

This list is not nearly as extensive as I would like, so hopefully I can add to it and get more ideas soon.