Studying with Crash Course

Crash Course is a channel on YouTube that is dedicated toward providing essential information to students about a variety of school subjects.  Created by two brothers, Hank and John, Crash Course had a wide variety of educational videos for students in high school, college, or anyone who wants to learn.  Topics range from “hard sciences” like chemistry, biology, and ecology to other interesting topics like intellectual property, economics, and world history.  Each topic has its own playlist, making it easy for students to watch all of the relevant videos in order (or shuffled by activating the “shuffle” toggle).  Each video is free to access on YouTube and Hank, John, and their friends seem to be producing these videos to encourage education and make learning fun.  

One of the most appealing aspect of these videos is the way the material is displayed.  Each video is accompanied by cartoon animation, sound effects, historical pictures, and a well educated person describing the information.  In a classroom setting, these videos are extremely useful because they provide an alternative way for students to access information compared to the standard lecture.  Students can watch these short 10-15 minute videos in class, for homework, or for fun.

While studying for my MTTC exams in biology and chemistry I used these videos.  Although it took quite some time to watch all of the videos (chemistry, for example, has 46 videos between 10-15 minutes in length) the material the videos touched on were on par with the rigor of the tests.  Studying this way reinforced that learning through a textbook is not the only way to learn nor is it be best way to learn for every student.  These videos are free, easily accessible, and fun to watch so I encourage everyone to check them out.