Utilizing University Podcasts for Science Courses

I recently finished listening to twelve hours of podcasts of Biology 1A from UC Berkeley. Now, I am here to share a studying method for podcasts that will be tremendously benefit to everyone planning to listen to science course podcasts.

1. No Passive Learning for Podcasts.

Initially, I began my studying with Integrative Biology 131: General Human Anatomy. I had a very weak in anatomy, so I hoped to absorb the knowledge via osmosis. I would watch the video lectures of this course while I was eating lunch.

But, this turned out to be a complete waste of time. Why?

Our brain can only store a few things at a time, and simply listening will not do the job. So, when I was watching the lectures for Biology 1A, I set certain hours to watch the lectures and took notes that the professor was writing in the board. This allowed me to both remember the terms and their corresponding definitions, and integrate one concept to another simultaneously.

2. Looking Up Words and Using a Reference Book

Because watching or listening to podcasts often is an independent activity that does not have credit or grade attached to it, it is very easy to neglect the unknown and continue with the lectures. Do not do this. Pause the lecture and look up the terms. Doing so will facilitate the long-term memory of those terms.

Also, let's say that you are watching lectures on Cell Biology. Then, buy a cheap, old edition of Cell Biology that has good ratings in Amazon from internet. You can probably get them for less than ten dollars. Personally, I purchased a hardcover textbook called Cell and Molecular Biology by Gerald Karp, 4^th edition (current edition is 6^th edition), for less than five dollars from Ebay and use it as my reference for podcast lectures in cell/molecular biology.

3. Think and Review.

Remember, you don't have a professor standing in front of you to glare and demand to know whether you really understood the concepts or not. So, after each lecture, you need to think about what you just learned and think whether you really grasped the materials. If not, you may want to replay it.

Personally, one of the rather difficult materials in the lecture involved pathways involving glucagon. The challenge to this pathway was that there were a lot of enzymes and proteins, namely phosphodiesterase, cyclin AMP, and protein kinase A

So, what did I do?

I went back to the lecture and copied the diagram that the professor wrote on the board and started to ask myself questions using the same phrases that he asked. I said, "Phosphodiesterase is an enzyme that induces the breakdown of cyclin AMP (cAMP) to 5'-AMP. And since cAMP level is directly related to protein kinase A regulatory and catalytic subunits, how would methylxanthines, compounds that inhibit phosphodiesterase, such as caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine, affect protein kinase A?" Underlying all these foreign terms is that I basically looked at all the enzymes and compounds that the professor mentioned and tried to reason myself the connection between them.

A desire to learn and become a more knowledgeable person is a respectful goal. But, this desire cannot be fulfilled for hard work, and especially for science courses, constant efforts and concentration are crucial.