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Well, it’s the time of year when we get comments that some people are going on an
Amoeba Sisters playlist marathon.
So we wanted to give you a few study tips that relate to our biology playlist.
First, when you’re studying this content – or any content – we challenge you to
ask yourself why it matters.
“Why is this content important?
How can the information be useful in our world?”
Our Unlectured Series focuses on this, because we think the “why does this matter?” is
critical.
Whether you’re learning about the properties of water or mitosis - you’ll find it more
meaningful if you can connect it to why it matters in this world.
You know, beyond a grade.
I mean, really, why are we learning about protein synthesis if we don’t know why it
matters?
Annnnd I can’t help myself - I got to answer this.
Because we wouldn’t be alive without proteins!
They make up channels, they are part of structure, they act as enzymes in reactions in our body,
they protect us from pathogens!!
That’s just 4 things.
And if a friend or family member has a disorder where a type of protein isn’t functioning
like it should, we need to understand why that can have an impact and what kind of treatments
can help them.
We strive to put relevance in all of our videos.
But if you can’t answer why a topic matters, find the answer to that before you study it.
When you know the learning actually matters it’s a lot easier to find motivation to
study it.
Second, as you’re going through our playlist, a few tips - try not to do a marathon.
We make all of our videos less than 10 minutes for a reason!
Set a timer for a short block of time when you will focus on a single video concept.
When that timer is going, make a commitment to keep the other distractions - Twitter,
Snapchat, whatever is popular at the present time – closed.
Consider logging out of them so you don’t get notifications.
If you have a lot of content to cover, make a schedule for the time blocks-preferably
over a few days- so you can space it out.
Our videos have subtitles to help with accessibility - they’re helpful to have on so you don’t
miss anything - click the CC button at the bottom right to see them.
Expand our video details and you’ll find we’re adding a time stamped table of contents
to many of our videos which may be helpful.
You can slow down or increase the speed of any of our videos.
Although slow it down or speed it up too much and I sound absolutely terrifying…so there’s
that.
Pause the video if you run into a tough concept or new vocabulary word - biology has a lot
of those.
Write the word down with either a definition in your own words - or a memorable doodle
- put it on a notecard.
Or on sticky notes and leave them in places where you’ll see them!
Also, if taking more substantial notes for yourself, some people find a lot of value
in sketch-noting as an alternative to just writing concepts.
Often we include a concept that we suggest to explore in more depth.
When we do that, we encourage you to write the concept down so you can explore it.
If you have questions when you’re watching our videos - especially questions that you
find interesting - write those down so you can find the answer for yourself.
That’s part of the very essence of staying curious and keeping an active role in your
learning.
Also - can you teach the content to someone else?
A peer?
Your little sister?
Your cat?
Maybe not your cat.
As a teacher, I’ll tell you that the impact of teaching content to someone else helps
you develop content mastery like nothing else.
Finally, when going through our playlist, remember that everyone was, once upon a time,
a beginner in all this stuff.
Including us.
Practice.
Work at it.
Get good.
Don’t put a limit on yourself by telling yourself that there’s only so much you’ll
be good at.
Once you decide to put a label of any kind on yourself, you know what often happens?
You tend to meet your expectations.
Look into that amazing term ‘growth mindset’- it can change how you see a lot of your studying.
And not just academics.
You should see our channel’s milestone page; it shows our simple start and how much we’ve
learned by just constant practice in creating.
And, we’re still learning all the time.
Which is fine with us- after all, isn’t growth all about learning?
To close, we hope our playlist can be a helpful supplement for whatever kind of assessment
you may be facing!
You got this.
Well that’s it for the Amoeba Sisters, and we remind you to stay curious.