Scott McDonald
Co-Host of Science In-Between
Dr. Scott McDonald is a Professor of Science Education at The Pennsylvania State University and Director of the Krause Studios for Innovation in the PSU College of Education. He received his undergraduate degree in Physics. He was high school Physics teacher for six years before returning for a Ph.D. in Learning Technologies and Science Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. McDonald takes a design-based approach to research focuses on science teacher learning and student learning in the geosciences. He researches teacher learning, framed as professional pedagogical vision for ambitious and equitable science teaching practices. His current projects, in collabortion with Amy Pallant and Hee-Sun Lee at the Concord Consortium include The Geological Models for Explorations of Dynamic Earth (GEODE), GeoHazard: Modeling Natural Hazards and Assessing Risks project, and Geological Construction of Rock Arrangements from Tectonics: Systems Modeling Across Scales (GeoCRAFT).
Scott McDonald has hosted 225 Episodes.
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Episode 208: Joys to the World, Vol. 4
August 28th, 2024 | Season 4 | 52 mins 5 secs
This is the end of season 4, so it is an all joys episode, so enjoy (see what we did there).
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Episode 207: Devil in the Details
August 21st, 2024 | Season 4 | 48 mins 1 sec
In this episode, we discuss conducting observations of phenomenon-based science classrooms.
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Episode 206: Craft of Carving
August 14th, 2024 | Season 4 | 49 mins 35 secs
This week we talk about teaching as a science, engineering, design, craft, or art practice.
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Episode 205: Project 2025 Explained
August 7th, 2024 | Season 4 | 41 mins 45 secs
In this episode, we outline the educational aspects of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 document.
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Episode 204: The Lark Owl Connection
July 31st, 2024 | Season 4 | 33 mins 55 secs
This week we talk about teaching climate and climate changes in the context of a new book from Mark Widschitl (lead author of the Ambitious Science Teaching book).
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Episode 203: Induction Junction, What's Your Function?
July 24th, 2024 | Season 4 | 41 mins 50 secs
In this episode, we discuss mentoring and induction of new science teachers.
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Episode 202: Who is Your Tribe?
July 17th, 2024 | Season 4 | 37 mins 52 secs
This week we talk about how truth is tribal and social, and so social death is scarier than physical death and why that matters for teaching and learning.
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Episode 201: Not Changing Buses
July 10th, 2024 | Season 4 | 36 mins 36 secs
In this episode, we discuss the sticky subject of transfer in education.
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Episode 200: Talking with Your Dog About Gravity
July 3rd, 2024 | Season 4 | 46 mins 30 secs
This week we dig into the differences between cognitive and sociocultural perspectives on learning and how they characterize not just different ways of learning, but of knowing.
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Episode 199: Two Beefs from Ollie
June 26th, 2024 | Season 4 | 45 mins 53 secs
In this episode, we discuss some of the issues we have with the current discourse around AI in education.
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Episode 198: Epistemic Extinguishing Event
June 20th, 2024 | Season 4 | 41 mins 27 secs
This week we talk about the fundamental mismatch between different ways of what it means to know something impacts everything about school (and everything else).
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Episode 197: Secret Sauce and Conference Chicken
June 12th, 2024 | Season 4 | 48 mins 46 secs
In this episode, we chat with Dr. April Luehmann, Associate Professor in the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester.
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Episode 196: AI Old Man Noises
June 5th, 2024 | Season 4 | 52 mins 55 secs
This week we have a wide ranging (even for us) conversation about Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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Episode 195: Hypothetical Ollie
May 29th, 2024 | Season 4 | 52 mins 23 secs
In this episode, we discuss whether scientists (and others) are inventors or discoverers.
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Episode 194: Esperanto of Residue
May 22nd, 2024 | Season 4 | 41 mins 15 secs
This week we talk about the concept of learning residue in both virtual and physical learning spaces.
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Episode 193: The Progress of Learning Progressions
May 15th, 2024 | Season 4 | 51 mins 7 secs
In this episode, we discuss a 2009 article from the Journal of Research in Science Teaching which discusses learning progressions and scientific modeling.