SPEAKER_02 0:00

You're listening to the Support Ed Learning Podcast, where we challenge the status quo of education and reimagine what learning should be. I'm Dr. Joe Sebastian, and in every episode we dive into critical thinking, Bloom's Taxonomy, educational innovation, and how AI is shaping the future of learning. Whether you're a teacher, parent, policymaker, or lifelong learner, you're in the right place to rethink, reshape, and revive education. What if I told you the reason your kid is struggling in biology has nothing to do with how smart they are and everything to do with how they're studying? Susannah Heinsey has spent 20 years teaching science, built a YouTube channel with over 148,000 subscribers, and developed a visual learning method that's helped over 10 million students learn biology, anatomy, and physiology. Today she's breaking down the science of how to actually learn science. That's what we're covering. So welcome back to the Support of Learning Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Joe Sebastian. Families often ask me how to navigate the college emissions landscape, uh, high school academics without spending thousands of dollars and wasting a ton of time. And the answer usually involves finding the people who have figured out the rules of the game that schools aren't telling you. That's why I'm really excited to welcome Susanna Heinsey here today. She is a biology faculty member, the creator of Science with Susanna, a YouTube channel, as I said, with over 148,000 subscribers and 10 million views, and one of the most innovative science educators I've come across. She's known for her draw-along teaching method, where students actively build diagrams and visuals instead of passively just reading textbooks. And she's done all of this while teaching full-time at a community college. So we're going to dive into what most students study science the wrong way, what the cognitive science says about how to actually retain complex material, and what parents should know if their kid is headed towards a healthcare or STEM career. Susanna, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

So I've given them the introduction, but how does an educator grow a YouTube channel, something they're passionate about, just about teaching biology or teaching science?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Well, yeah, I didn't know that I was starting a YouTube channel, probably. I just got to this point where I felt like I could not cover the content at a slow enough rate in class. And so I thought, why are we doing this? Just because the words are coming out of my mouth does not mean that students are going to be able to retain this stuff. And so I started putting the basic content online, and then I could go as slow as I wanted in class, and whatever I didn't get to, I told them, you guys just watch this on your own tonight, and then we'll talk about it next time.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

So you were basically almost flipping the classroom, but also doing videos for homework. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

That was a flip. And that just kind of like became the YouTube origin.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

I didn't even know. It was funny. I remember one of my kids was like, this was a long time ago, but was like, mom, you have 10,000 subscribers. And I like, I hadn't even looked at it. Because I would literally just make the videos on my phone and upload them, and I never even saw the channel itself. So that is something that it'd be nice if I took a little better care of it. But that's how it started.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

That's awesome. The um, so you've I guess you started in education, you got your master's in the physiology from UNC Chapel Hill. Yes. Um, and you could have gone into research and into the industry instead, you ended up teaching middle school in North Carolina. What pulled you towards teaching?

SPEAKER_01 3:57

I fell in love with the idea of being a college teacher when I was an undergraduate. Realize now, looking back, I was so blessed with the education that I got. I had some amazing professors, Dr. Powers, Dwight Kimberly. Um, these these people just inspired me and specifically with physiology. I had been thinking I wanted to go to vet school, but I loved getting into the deep physiology so much that I was like, all right, I'll go to grad school. So I was actually in a PhD program, but that's where I started realizing I actually could tell right away when I got there, that wasn't the lifestyle I was looking for. Um I my the researchers, the principal investigators I worked with were all brilliant, but they also worked all the time. Like that is all they did. They drank coffee and they worked. And so that's why I knew I didn't want to like go into research forever. And also I was not as good at the bench, like doing the actual experiments as some of my brilliant colleagues that were just like magic at the bench. And I just preferred sitting around talking about all the ideas, so lazy. But that's what I love to do. I always knew I wanted to teach.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Where did you end up teaching in North Carolina?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Well, it was this little tiny school called Cantner School because you didn't have to have a teaching certificate that first year that I started because they were a little desperate. They were in a bind, I think. And they had me do back then in North Carolina, they had something called lateral entry, and you could start teaching. So I had my master's in physiology, and then I took some classes on the side to get the certification, and that so that was how I started.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

What county was that in?

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Oh, yeah, sorry. That was so it was in it was in is Chapel Hill in Orange County? It was in a town called Hillsborough. That it's right near Chapel Hill in Durham.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

My first teaching job was in middle school in Onslow County, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Where wait, where's that?

SPEAKER_02 6:08

That's about 40 minutes north of Wilmington by Camp Lejeune.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

So by the by the water Yeah, yeah, by the water. So so yeah, so got my start in North Carolina too. So you started filming YouTube, you started filming videos in 2010. The YouTube channel kind of blew up shortly thereafter. Is that or no? I don't really.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

I think it's a slow grow. I think it has been a slow grow.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

But I honestly don't know.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

I got you. Was it your daughter that drew you attention? Like, hey, you got 10,000 subscribers, or what how'd that all happen?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

I think it was my yeah, my older son. I have two boys. I think that it was him when he was uh, you know, kind of starting to get to the age where he always wanted to look on YouTube and he heard I had a you know a channel, or maybe he saw me uploading. Right. And yeah, I think that that that he was impressed.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

You got cred with your kids, so that's that's the most important thing. So you're known for the draw-along method. Students don't just watch lectures, they follow along actively and draw the diagrams with you. Walk me why walk me through why this works and what's the cognitive science behind it.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Yeah, so I will say again, this goes back to my undergraduate days. My very best professors would draw. And back then it was on a whiteboard with markers. And I wanted to do that too, but I wanted it to be kind of tidy. And so I started doing mine on paper and and filming it like that. I used to document camera a lot. Right. Okay, but but I think that the idea is it's one, it's nothing magical, but it is one step that helps the students become more actively engaged in what they're working on. But I actually think, especially when I think about the comments that I get where I'm helpful, I think that what really is the most useful is I take what is like an encyclopedia of a textbook, and I can put like an entire chapter of key concepts on one page of notes. I don't always do that anymore, but that was originally how it started. I thought I can get this whole like story onto one page. And I think that that simplifying is really what helps students, especially like English as a second language, and students that are maybe in med school and they got this huge amount of information that was presented to them, and then I can concisely put it together in a short amount of time.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

Nice relative. And so, you know, we talk about that a lot in our tutoring and test prep program that it's not just about memorizing the content. That AP biology doesn't assess any memorization, it's really application-based, it's process. How does your process bridge that gap?

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Bridge which gap? Say that again.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

In terms of the the the biggest gap I see with kids is they think that just memorizing more information is gonna get them ready for their AP biology exam. And we stress it's skills over content knowledge. So how does your method help bridge that?

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Well, I guess I would go back to saying that information, when you have a lot of information, you want to think about how there could be one thread that goes through all of that information and it becomes a story. You can start, you you start with one point. Let's say it's let's say you're learning the parts of the cell. You start with something that's inside of it, such as the DNA, and then you tell a whole story until let's say you get a protein that's now embedded in the membrane to do its job. And then the student can sort of recite that story. And so you're actually bringing together the memorization of the content with an understanding of why that content matters.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. So um the I guess in terms of the science of learning, that process, like a big philosophy, like what we say, you said knowing the content isn't enough. Um but walk me through what the students' experience looks like when they're watching your videos and um like how they follow along and why does that what does that process kind of look like step by step?

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Yeah, so it's different, of course, if they're watching at home or if we're in the classroom together, but I would say a couple of really important things. So the students, if you're listening to this, what you want to do is take a chunk of information. It might be, especially if they're starting out and they know they struggle with their attention, five minutes, 10 minutes, and then they stop. And then they need to go through it again in their mind and summarize it in a paragraph, I would say. If they like to write with a pen, they could do it that way. If they want to like type it up, they could do it that way. I actually super recommend these days that my students take that summary of what they think they just heard in the last five or 10 minutes and literally type it into Chat GPT and then see what chat spits back out at them and says, hey, you know, you got this part, but you missed these key concepts that tie things together. So you need to have that. I guess the iteration goes, you watch a chunk of information, you summarize it in your own words, and you do it right after you watch the video. In fact, I think what they're you've talked about the cognitive science a couple times. What they're saying now, the most effective thing you do is that you are testing yourself. I mean, essentially that's what you're doing when you summarize that stuff. You test yourself immediately after it's been presented to you. And then you go to bed. And that first night that they sleep is able to solidify more of that information than, say, for example, if they watched 10 or 20 minutes of a video, summarized it the next day, and then went to sleep. Isn't that funny? But that when they do those little like recall and application tests, they do better if they they test themselves immediately after finishing the presentation. And then that night when they sleep is super important and they want to make sure they get a good night's sleep that first night.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

But is it surprising that it's that it kind of reinforces what they already learned right away? I mean, that's it doesn't seem like it would be that surprising, but it does make it make sense in practice. So with your chip with those videos, you know, you've also adopted the problem-based learning, which I love that because I think we've gone way too far with project-based learning, and we've it's just become an activity, just another activity, people, but like actually solving a problem. And this is things that top schools go through, medical law programs. What made you make that shift in how you taught through problem-based learning?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Well, even though I loved color and draw with my students, I definitely would find that just because we were talking about the content, they weren't internalizing it. And that was that was a problem that I wanted to solve. So I needed to put the ball back in their court. And essentially what that ends up being, it's super easy in my field, right? I can make case studies all day long. And the idea is that here's the patient. What's wrong with the patient? What does this blood value mean? Why might we see this? It's always just application, application, application. And then they're able to, I would say the most gratifying thing that I find is when I'll have a student come up to me after class or during a break and say, you know, my uh grandmother is in the hospital. They were talking about this stuff when we were visiting her. Now I finally get that, and it's all making sense. That's how they're going to remember it is the application. So essentially, problem-based learning comes down to, in my field, case studies that the students are working to figure out what's going on with the particular patient.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

For parents who are listening and watching this, you know, their kid might be taking AP biology, getting ready for college-level sciences, getting ready for medical programs. What's the one study habit that you think kids should change right now based on the work you've seen?

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Yeah. So at the risk of repeating myself, I would say that what they need to do, and I don't think that very many of them are doing this, is as soon as they finish, let's say they're in a high school AP bio class, as soon as they get done with that class, they spend five or 10 minutes writing up what they think they learned in that class. They literally just take that five or 10 minutes. Now, if they have a really good teacher, that teacher is going to carve out that time for them at the end of class. Right. And the diligent student needs to know if they're listening, they need to know that is where the gold is. That five or 10 minutes when they summarize what it was that happened in that class. And this is where they might find themselves making a diagram. They might find themselves putting some labels on things. And then they go back and they recognize, oh, I missed this, or oh, and then they could write down, hey, here's a question I want to ask my teacher. So that's what I think that that is not happening. Instead, they're maybe rewriting their notes, or the diligent ones are either rewriting their notes or they're putting everything in to make like quizlet flashcards, but they're not taking that time to develop a story.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

What's what's the biggest mistake you see kids making when studying biology or anatomy or physiology that makes you just want to pull your hair out? That they that they get they get wrong.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

I think that they are mistaking having a lot of resources in front of them for actually creating a cohesive like knowledge set. And that's why I would say my pictures and my drawings are quite handy that way, because you can look at one page and that is the summary right there for them. And they're just they're getting they're seeing a lot of times the really hardworking ones are trying to read a whole chapter and they're not in that time that they're reading that chapter, they're it's like going in one ear and out the other. So they need to slow down and really say, repeat back to themselves. Oh, I even will recommend a lot of times they record themselves. So let's say they really don't want to type it, they really don't want to write it, then they just take a little bit of time to record themselves summarizing what it was they just heard.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

This episode is brought to you by Supported Tutoring, where we don't just help students get better grades, we help them become critical thinkers. Whether it's mastering AP exams, maximizing college applications, or building lifelong learning habits, our expert tutors focused on critical thinking, confidence, and real growth. Head to supportedtutoring.com to find the support your student deserves. And that you you think that improves the retention or improves the ability to move on to if they do record themselves? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

If if they record themselves and then they listen back to it while they're looking at their notes, they can be like, oh gosh. And then they might have maybe they'll have a highlighter. I miss this, I miss this. They might add a little thing. That, yes, I think that is that's where the gold is.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Let's talk about the fear factor in STEM, right? A lot of students and honestly, a lot of parents hear anatomy, physiology, or AP biology, they panic. They think it's inherently too hard. You've obviously been teaching this for over two decades. Well, how do you break that down for parents? How would you present it as like this is this is obtainable for any kid? Any kid can learn this.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

So I might I might ask you a question back about this because I am very curious about what you're doing with these students. Tell me about your clientele because I know that where you're going with this question. And my students that I teach at a community college are not necessarily the same as the students that you're describing that are taking AP bio. I'd like to hear a little more about that. So you have students that are just like studying and studying and studying, and they're still not doing well in AP bio.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

So I think there's there's two types, there's two types of students. Now, I have a couple different avatars, but the ones that I see the most right now, the ones that are kind of out of luck, are the ones that are straight A, they have straight A's in the class, and there's nothing challenging about their high school AP biology class. They're not necessarily their grade is made up of overinflation participation projects, things that don't pertain to their AP exam readiness. Those are the ones that are heading for absolute disaster and probably going to fail the exam. The one, the parents that parents or students that recognize this early and go, I'm not really learning anything. They're the ones that reach out to us. That's probably our best type of student because they're like, I know I need extra help. I know I'm not learning what I need to learn. The ones that I'm usually talking about are I get parents that call me, my kid is doing bad in biology and we want them to be a doctor. And like, what do you mean bad? Well, he has a B. Okay. Like, but I'm sorry, disgrace to the family. Has a B, you know, C, like whatever. And it's like, oh, okay, well, AP is supposed to be hard. And I then I dig into it, and it usually comes down to the teacher has set up the class to have the exams weighted pretty heavily. And those exams are directly aligned to college board. Now the gap that we see is the teacher is giving them a college board level exam, but not teaching them the skills of how to answer it. They're just covering the biology, and then there's a skill-based test. And so that's the gap, and that's causing the grade to decline. So that's what we aim to fix. But that's typically that's like the context of my question.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Right, right. So just to ask you again another question. What do you find is the most successful in your company? Like what when you have students that come back with their success story, what are you guys doing that's working?

SPEAKER_02 21:01

We learn by doing. We I think the problem is holding the line. And most parents just want time and sessions. That's the like right now, it's a critical time for us in the company because we have five weeks to go for the AP exams. And everyone's like, just more sessions, more sessions, more sessions. And I'm like, okay, well, we have a test prep process. Your kids have to do the work. So we can give you more sessions, but they need to do something to get to those sessions. Now, structurally, we're going to change the program to make sure that there's like unlocks, like kind of like course level. But sessions tied to anything but just time when it's really do the work, get the feedback. It's iterative, right? Get the feedback, grow, practice the skills, work on what you're getting right and what you're getting wrong, and improve from there.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Okay. Yeah. What that makes me think of when you were talking about it is I think that maybe a way we can encourage. These kids to see what needs to happen is for them to think of it like the way they would about trying to get strong. So just like they wouldn't go to the gym and walk around the gym and just look at the equipment, they gotta get sweaty, basically. They gotta do, they got the hard work. I think it's the same thing. Just like looking at all of their resources is not gonna put that content into their head. And also, it's gonna be tiring. If they don't feel like they've had a brain workout after like even just 20 minutes, then they're not studying right. I think they need to know that. That if they're able to sit there and say, Oh, I studied for three or four hours. No, I really doubt that that was all very effective. Um, especially because, as we both know, their attention spans are probably shorter than what kids' attention spans were 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. So they have to build that attention span and they should be tired. They should, their brain should be tired and they should need to get up and go on a walk like every 20 minutes, every half hour.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Right. You know, built a lot of families spend a lot of money on tutoring and resources for science. You've built a platform that's free and reaches millions. So as someone who's been in the classroom for two decades, is that money well spent or are families overpaying for something that they could get for free with the right system?

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Well, you are, of course, asking this in the AI generation technology. Okay, so I actually I'm a little radical in this area. I would love it if we had far less compulsory education and that kids that didn't want to be in school anymore could go, you know, book become an electrician or a plumber. Apparently, those jobs are going to be making like a ton of money when a bunch of the other jobs have been replaced with AI. So if they want to work with their hands, more power to them. We need that, you know, people a lot of those skills are being lost. So that way, that solves a huge part of the problem, where then you just have students in the class that more of them want to be there. I get it that sometimes their parents might be the reason they're there, but you still would have just be teaching to students that actually feel like it's worth their time. That shouldn't cost a lot of money. The other thing I would say, I guess, is that with all the AI stuff, I mean, all the information in the world is at our fingertips. You can upload things to any kind of an AI and get some sort of a study guide back. In fact, that's another thing I recommend is that students take their notes and literally scan them, upload them to the chat bot, and ask for it to ask them. So, like with AP bio, what they could do is say, give me the absolute hardest AP bio questions you can, but only restrict it to the content that I just showed you. Don't look anywhere else on the internet. Only make the questions from this content I gave you. And I think that that can become very iterative. And if they get good with their prompts, which could be something that you could show them how to make the prompts better. That's aware a tutor I think can make a huge difference in helping the student figure out how to make use of that time when they're not together anymore.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

That would be useful. So you actually advise pre-nursing students in your program, correct?

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Yeah, I don't at my new college, I don't do that as much as I did in Washington State, but I've done a lot of pre-nursing advising. It's a I love to talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Okay. So for parents who have a kid interested in nursing or healthcare, what should they be doing right now in high school to prepare? Not just academically, but in terms of how they study and they talk about science.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

So they should not be as concerned about the A. Like you said, I'm really glad that you brought that up when you said that you have students that have straight A's and it's because the content is not as challenging. Maybe what I find is a lot of times the most kind-hearted, diligent students, what they have become really good at is making sure they turn their work in on time and that they do their very best to understand the instructions. But that's really where it ends. They have not developed the study skills that they need yet. So the pep talk that I give to my students now, because where I teach now, they can come into anatomy and physiology without ever having taken a general biology or a general chemistry class. And so I think of them like my baby students, and that that first semester that we're together, I encourage them, it is all about developing the study skills that they're going to need in the future. They are learning how to study. So I would answer your question by saying, those high school students, you want to go on and you want to like there's an opportunity right now. There's a huge opportunity for students that care and are willing to learn how to study to like shine because so many students are no longer developing those skills that you could be like lapping students that are not, that are not, and it's not fair, right? It's the system is just not teaching the students that anymore. But there's a huge opportunity there. So that what they need to learn is how to study. And I know that you've said a few times, and I guess this is like again radical of me, they do have to learn how to memorize. They there are not very many students that are very good at memorizing anymore. And this, all this stuff you're talking about with application and skills on an AP bio exam, you do have to have the foundational information. They have to know what the ribosome does. So, like it, it's not just all about critical thinking and application. Trust me, I love that. There's nothing I love more than pathophysiology. Like that, I could talk that all day. But if they don't learn how to memorize, then they fall apart. So actually, that's a great thing that they can start doing in high school. Maybe that's why I was kind of asking you, the students you work with, they're already all really good at memorizing.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

No, not necessarily, but they think that's the only skill they need. Because the biology exam, like well, most uh most AP exams, there's free response questions. So they still have to apply, analyze, and evaluate, even I mean, yeah, foundate like it's it's blooms taxonomy, right? So they still need still need to remember and understand, but that's usually where learning stops in the classroom is remembering and understanding. It's not we're not spending enough time living in tops of blooms, like with you know, going deeper into learning of how to analyze, how to apply, how to evaluate. So the problem is what I mean by memorizing is when you try to memorize responses, rememorize the content, but then you're introduced to new content, and now I have not developed the application skill to apply my content to answer it.

unknown 29:16

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Something new to be able to extend and extrapolate.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Yeah. And that's where we're falling short. I see. I see. Okay. So we're not critically thinking is really what's going on. Kids aren't thinking, kids aren't kids do not know how to think generally, right? And they're not, and they're not being forced to think, they're not practicing that skill. And that's why we're underperforming on some of these exams. So you've actually served on the division chair for sciences. You've seen the system from the administrative side to what's broken, what what are colleges not actually doing well when it comes to preparing students for healthcare careers?

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Yeah. So with this, I wouldn't my answer, I don't think, is so much about what they're not doing. We've talked a bit about that, but I have some things I would love to see happen. And it sort of does address what you were talking about with this extending and extrapolating. Okay, I would love to do this myself. And then I think if we have this happening at colleges all around the country, it would be amazing. If you could have someone like me, a fat a biology faculty, sit in an entire nursing program. Like I would just get to go, basically just listen to the classes, maybe follow them around on the clinical, watch all of that, and then entirely redesign the AMP curriculum and the microbiology curriculum. Those are the biggies that these healthcare students have to take. Redesign all of it so that every single thing that they are learning is directly applicable in one way or another, either to something they have to do in the program or even something that we know they're gonna be tested on, like a board exam, like the NCLEX or something. That would be my dream. I think that that would be amazing. I feel like we waste so much of a magical opportunity. They have to take, you know, a year, a year and a half of prereqs. And much of it, I think, ends up not ever coming up again in their program. Let's not have that. Like, let's really redesign that. So that's what I think. If I could redesign how the prereqs are for healthcare, I would have a great interaction between the faculty that are in the healthcare program and the faculty that are teaching the prereqs. And they would be getting together for meetings, they would be writing exams together, they would be visiting each other's classes. I mean, the sky's really the limit. It's sad that it's not happening yet, but I haven't given up. And that's where, like, as I move on, that's where I see my next 20 years, like really working at that to make more of that happen.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Nice, nice. The uh I do, I think a lot of a lot of programs are moving more to be getting them out there into the field and getting the more practicality of it the faster, right? Because like in education, you do your student teaching the last semester, and it's like if that's your first time in the classroom and you do not want to be teaching, you're kind of screwed. You're not, you're, you're doing it. You're you're not graduating, right? So if you could redesign science, how it's taught from high school through college, what would you change if you had the magic wand? What would what would its system look like?

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Okay, my magic wand, like I already said, it would be a lot less compulsory so that the students that really don't care, they shouldn't have to take a lot of that stuff as long as they have other things that they could go into where they can make a good living, like I said, you know, electricians, plumbers, etc. And so that's the first thing. If I had littles, I would be homeschooling, I would be major advocate for homeschooling uh so that you can have those conversations with the kids and keep them thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, push, push, push, push, push, because that's what's not happening in the classroom. I think that the teachers are having to spend a lot of time doing classroom management and dealing with apathy, and they're not able to push, push, push, push. And they're not able to really follow their own creative interests, which is how the kids catch that passion. When the kids see their teacher passionate, then they that lights a fire in them. And that's what we want to see happening. And it's much easier for smaller groups of people to be doing that than the bigger ones. There was something else I was gonna say, because you were saying redesigning it, and I think uh I don't know. I guess there was there was something else I was gonna say there, but oh no, that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

You ready for lightning round?

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Yeah, I guess. I know, because I was like, there was some really good idea I had, and now I can't think of it, but I gotta write down notes too.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

I get I get good questions and then I forget them. All right, let's move into lightning room. Maybe it'll maybe I'll come back. So basically, first thing that comes to your mind, no explanation needed, okay? Okay. One book that changed how you think about teaching and learning.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

Saul Khan. One room school, what is it? Global world, global schoolhouse or something. The Khan Academy guy.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

Okay. If you could go back and tell yourself one thing when you started teaching, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 34:36

Uh I think just lean into um lean into the passion and don't worry about the smaller criticisms.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

What's the worst advice you hear of people giving about studying science?

SPEAKER_00 34:58

They're probably read the textbook.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

One tool or resource besides your own that you can't live without.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Chat GPT.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Okay. What's something you believe about education that most people in your field would disagree with? We covered a couple of those too already.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Yeah, I would get rid of a lot of compulsory stuff. I don't think that everybody needs to do science. I remember my redesign.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

What students need is more training in formal logic. And that's where you are saying that they have trouble with the critical thinking. It's because they've never learned how to think logically. You cannot think critically until you can think A to B to C to D. So I would have them be learning a lot more formal logic. And believe it or not, grammar actually teaches logical thinking that way too, which is why grammar was always a big deal in the old days. But the art of diagramming sentences has gone out the window. Anyway, that was what did I answer your lightning question there?

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Yeah, yeah. And one thing you think parents overthink when it comes to science education.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

The o overthinking would be that A's are good enough, and that they they think that if their child is getting A's, that that means that they're getting the skills that they need.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

Well Oh, and they also overthink science projects. Science projects and the science fairs.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Anyone with the thing volcano?

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Yeah, right. So that would be something that does more damage to science than anything else, probably these days.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

The yellow one is the sun. Do you know that?

SPEAKER_01 36:53

I think I know where you're going with that.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Do you know Brian Regan's skit on that? Huh? No. Oh man, you're gonna watch it. I mean, I'm not gonna do it. It's good, but it's basically like the science. You know, he didn't none of his parents didn't help him with his science project. And there's kids at the science fair backing up volcanoes off the back of a pickup truck. It's like, you know, a kid has a volcano, can't tie his own shoes, but he came with a volcano. Billy had this, Billy had the solar system, and then the teacher comes up to him and is like, Oh, that's nice, Billy. And he's like, Yeah, the big yellow one is the sun. And it's like, oh, what are these other planets? The yellow one is the sun, the yellow one is what they call the sun. All right, but what about the other planets, Billy? And Brian had a cup of dirt for his science project. So that's the parents that do this stuff do the work for the kids. And then yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

We have a anti, it's the anti-critical thinking.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Absolutely. Well, eventually robots can do it for them too. So but for people who want to find your videos, you or follow along on the resources, where should they go?

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Uh, science with Susanna. Yeah, I have a website that has everything kind of organized. They can look at the videos and then their practice questions. And I lot of times have a quizlet that goes right with it, or they can just go to my YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

Awesome, awesome. And we'll put all those links in the show notes and in the description below. Susanna, thank you for being here and uh thank you for your time.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Yeah, it was nice to meet you.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

Nice to meet you too. First podcast in the books for you.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:26

There you go. All right. Well, again, thank you all for joining the supported learning podcast, and we'll see you next time. Thanks for joining us on the Supported Learning Podcast. If today's conversation inspired you, challenged you, or sparked a new perspective, be sure to subscribe and share with a fellow change maker. We'll be back soon with more voices, more insight, and more ways to elevate the future of learning together. Until then, keep learning and keep pushing the conversation forward.