About two weeks ago, Crash Course published a short video explaining some of their future projects! I was ecstatic to the point where I rushed down to my sister’s basement bedroom and started screaming.
“Ann,” she said. “You’re such a nerd.”
(To be fair, they’re doing some incredible new series! Geography! Organic chemistry! Entrepreneurship! Linguistics!)
In light of this lovely news, I’d like to highlight some Crash Course series you probably haven’t had to sit through in any of your classes: these are series about topics you don’t usually do in high school. Crash Course does a lovely job of giving you a basic lecture series on topics you don’t get a chance to study at school, and I implore you to explore some of these series if you’re looking to know something new!
Image courtesy of Crash Course.
Big History: 5/10 eons.
Hosts: John Green, Hank Green, and Emily Graslie
Big History is a science/history series about the history of the entire universe, from the Big Bang to the Anthropocene. It was split into 2 parts, with the first part alternatively hosted by all three hosts and the second hosted by Graslie alone. The first part was really awesome! It gave a nice overview of everything! But the second just didn’t feel right: it only lasted six episodes and ended very abruptly, and it really didn’t feel like it had actually concluded. Additionally, I really think that 16-ish episodes aren’t nearly enough to cover big history; I wish they’d come back to it.
Image courtesy of Crash Course.
Study Skills: 6/10 bullet journals.
Host: Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank is a study skills YouTuber (apparently, that’s a thing), and he did a mini-series about how to study well for Crash Course, including how to take good notes and how to read your text effectively. I’m sure this series is helpful for some people, but this really just isn’t the way that I study best. I don’t need a whole video to learn what a bullet journal is; this sort of topic is better for blogs, in my opinion. But if you’re in a funk and don’t know how to effectively study, this series would be great for you!
Image courtesy of Crash Course.
Mythology: 7/10 ziggurats.
Host: Mike Rugnetta
Mike Rugnetta was the host of the PBS Idea Channel, though that channel has now stopped producing videos. Mythology is a super interesting topic that I was excited to look into, but Rugnetta is a little awkward, and his jokes often fall flat. There’s an extended inside-joke about Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing, that I never really understood the purpose of. To their credit, I really liked how they jumped between the mythologies of different civilizations and explored some of the connections between them.
Image courtesy of YouTube.
History of Science: 8/10 test tubes.
Host: Hank Green
Hank Green is awesome. History is awesome. Science is awesome. Put it all together, and you get an awesome show. Hank takes you through the pseudoscience and actual science of human civilizations, and the show takes a close look at non-Western civilizations. Fun fact, non-Western civilizations were scientifically way ahead of Europe for a very long time, and we tend to ignore all their achievements when we discuss the history of science. I can’t pinpoint why this isn’t my favorite series, but I don’t have any complaints.
Image courtesy of Crash Course.
Film: 8/10 cameras.
Hosts: Craig Benzine, Lily Gladstone, and Michael Aranda
The three hosts of Film take you through the history of film, how films are produced, and criticism of cinema classics, respectively. It’s really entertaining, though I will say I preferred Gladstone’s presentation style over the other two. (Aranda is okay, but Benzine is a little awkward.) There’s something in this series for everyone! I wasn’t a huge fan of the film criticism portion hosted by Aranda only because I’m not very cultured and hadn’t seen most of the movies they talked about, but generally, I did like this series a lot.
Image courtesy of YouTube.
Navigating Digital Information: 9/10 apps.
Host: John Green
Fun fact, John stopped using most social media. In his state of enlightenment, he made a series on how we use the internet. It’s really, really interesting, and there are a lot of tips and tricks that John gives us as to how we should go about researching topics or surfing social media. (Hint: it requires a lot of fact-checking.) I only docked this one point because his tips are very time-consuming to follow; one of them, for example, is to have lots of tabs open with different articles on the same topic to cross-check them. I wish we had time for that.
Image courtesy of Crash Course.
Philosophy: 10/10 brains.
Host: Hank Green
This has to be one of my favorite series, and no, it’s not just because I like The Good Place. (I actually watched Philosophy way before starting The Good Place.) (Hank also watches The Good Place.) Anyway, Philosophy is one of the best series that Crash Course has created, and it’s sad that it’s not more popular! Hank has a really lovely presentation style, light years ahead of his awkward, slightly immature Biology series, and philosophy is a wonderful subject to discuss in a short series like this for people who just want a taste of morals and ethics.
I hope this list has given you at least something to be interested in from Crash Course. It’s really a fantastic way to get a basic understanding of a topic you haven’t learned about, not just a way to review for AP exams! Anyone can benefit from watching an educational video or two!
Except for the Mongols.
Image courtesy of Imgur.
For a full list of Crash Course series, head to every middle schooler’s favorite research site, Wikipedia.
Ok, I thought I was the only one who really loved these crash courses! I think that they are so useful and when you just need a quick review before a test, they are so beneficial to watch because they cover all of the basic information you will ever need to know about a topic. I have to say though, recently John Green came out with a crash course for AP European History and he is not energetic at all anymore and it makes me so sad to watch. However, I think that all people should use these crash courses because they give so much good information! Also, I didn’t know that they had crash courses available on topics like Navigating Digital Information. As someone who is really bad with computers, maybe it is time I took a look at that site. But do not worry Ann, you are not the only person who likes these crash courses!