Chase Weston and the Who Knew? Crew - Episode 1

Join ace explorer Chase Weston as he and Who Knew? Crew assistant Maria explore some of the most important facets of Russia, including climate, diversity, landmarks, and natural resources.

The point of this podcast is to fulfill VA SOL World Geography 4. The SOL explains that students should economical, physical, and cultural characteristics of the three countries in central Asia with the largest GDP: Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. I chose Russia because I knew I could garner the most useful information about Russia, and because I knew at some point in time my students would learn about what roles Russia has played in U.S. foreign affairs (mostly during World War II and the Cold War). I mostly focused on the climate and natural resources of Russia, but I tried to include cultural experiences/tidbits and important geographical features and landmarks where it was possible.

I tried to make this podcast really entertaining. The grade level with whom I imagined using this podcast was middle school, so I didn't want to bore them with a monotone voice just rattling off facts about a country halfway around the world. I tried to pick colorful pictures and encourage my co-narrator to sound excited about the material. I wanted my students to get a feeling that they really were in Russia and experiencing what Chase and Maria experienced during their Russian exploration.

As far as using this technology in the classroom, I feel like a podcast is an AMAZING tool. I will definitely be using this in my classroom. It took no more than two hours to do, and if I broke that up over multiple days, I would work for maybe half an hour a day on it. To me that's minimal time to put out a quality instructional product. But I don't want to be the only one making podcasts. When we finished taping the narrations, my friend turned to me and said, "We're done? Really? Can we make another one? I really liked doing that!" I want my students to have fun learning, and podcasts, even though they take some work, are definitely fun. Hopefully by introducing podcasts to my students and using them in my classroom, I can show my students that learning about people or places is fun. And then hopefully that will form an impetus for them to learn and research on their own outside of my classroom.