As the new semester of online school rolls around, students everywhere face new challenges, one of them being the necessity of self-learning. Scary.
Luckily, we live in a modern age where technology is literally everywhere. If you have a device, then you have access to half the world’s learning resources (just an estimate, of course).
One of the most popular online platforms is YouTube. You can find anything on YouTube, from tutorials on how to make banana bread to livestreams of professional Fortnite games.
Don’t worry, we’re not talking about either of those on this post. Instead, I’m going to show you the 10 best YouTube channels that you should know about to make this new semester of online school easier.
CrashCourse
You may have heard of John Green, the author behind some New York Times bestsellers such as The Fault in Our Stars, Looking For Alaska, Paper Towns, and many more. Well, John Green is a Youtube content creator as well!
CrashCourse has been on YouTube for almost 15 years (though the oldest videos are from 2012), and features John Green and his brother Hank Green in most of the videos.
It has covered over 32 courses since its debut, and is still growing! You can find most of the common high school courses like World History, Biology, Chemistry, and Literature on the channel already.
CrashCourse’s videos are incredibly informative and creative; they’re easy to digest and interesting to listen to, as the producers always include “Thought Bubbles” and other types of fun animation throughout the video.
Although CrashCourse and John Green are both amazing and wonderful, the videos are a little outdated (not the information, but the curriculums they present). So don’t expect to watch a whole playlist and be able to follow along with your class notes.
Instead, search for individual topics on CrashCourse. For example, instead of watching all the videos about Land-Based Empires (AP World History unit), search just for the Mongols.
Last thing: John Green talks fast. Make sure you pay attention or the video will be half-over before you know it!
It’s Okay To Be Smart
This channel is kind of like CrashCourse. Hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph. D., this channel focuses all about science.
Unlike CrashCourse, this channel answers all the questions a curious child may ask. If you don’t understand what I mean, here are a couple titles of its videos:
- Are We All Related?
- Why Is Our Skeleton On The Inside?
- Why Don’t Birds Lay Square Eggs?
As outrageous as these titles sound, the channel itself is very informational. It focuses on the most common topics of science, such as biology, physics, earth science, and even food science.
If you’re looking for some fun videos that also teach about science, definitely give It’s Okay To Be Smart a try.
Heimler’s History
This channel, produced by Steve Heimler, is all about these high school courses: AP World History, AP U.S. History, AP Government, and AP Macroeconomics.
Not regarding how you may feel about these classes, I can almost guarantee you will love Steve Heimler’s videos. Here are just a couple reasons why he’s “shot to fame” in the past school year:
- He follows the modern history curriculums
- He doesn’t miss any of the AP exams’ knowledge points
- His information is clear and relevant
- He tells a lot of jokes
Not only does he go over and explain all the key ideas and knowledge points of each chapter and each unit, he connects them (if you’re an AP student, you know how important that is).
Plus, he has videos that teach you how to write historical analysis essays! So make sure to check him out if you’re an AP history student.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed is a “branch” of TED. If you like TED’s speech videos, you’ll love TED-Ed’s animated speech videos (or not, I can’t promise anything).
Unlike the previous 2 channels I mentioned, TED-Ed doesn’t really teach school-related lessons. Instead, their videos provoke thought.
On this channel, you’ll see a lot of videos about common myths, forgotten history, “unsolvable” riddles, and other cool stories. Honestly, “cool” can’t even describe some of their videos.
If you’re looking for some “abstract” educational videos, definitely check this channel out.
studyign
This channel is a little different than all the ones I mentioned above. Hosted by a college student, studyign aims to help high schoolers and college students become more organized, motivated, and study-efficient.
I absolutely love this channel’s thumbnails (one of the reasons I love its videos) because they look so professional yet aesthetic.
But putting the aesthetics on the side, I also love the content. Sareena (the YouTuber behind the channel) gives real, experience-based advice that can genuinely help students watching her videos.
Lastly, this channel is also home to some unique videos I’ve never seen before but quickly realized I need. Here are just 2 examples:
- What to do with empty notebooks
- 25 ways to use sticky notes
Ellen Kelley
Ellen is actually a high schooler, which is surprising considering her amazing organization, productivity, and creativity skills.
I recently discovered her channel while on a YouTube rabbit hole of productivity (where I convinced myself I was being productive by watching other people be productive).
Her videos are professional and informative, with a lot of great information relating to the student lifestyle. She has a lot of popular videos relating to habits, tools, and systems for students that I definitely recommend.
ChilledCow
If you’re like me, you like to put on a pair of headphones and listen to calming music while you study. I do this now especially since I’m stuck at home.
If your environment is not the best one for studying and productivity, I definitely suggest investing in either some noise-cancelling walls or noise-cancelling headphones (I’ve linked my favorite pair- they’re so comfy and literally 99% noise-cancelling).
Meanwhile, what type of music you listen to is up to you. ChilledCow is a famous channel, but really famous for 1 video/livestream. The studying anime girl.
Depending on how well you focus with different music, you can listen to classical, lofi, instrumental, indie, or whatever genre you like. I suggest avoiding pop, rap, rock, etc, because those get you excited easily and can reduce your productivity.
Netflix
Many students have Netflix. However, most of those students don’t make use of the educational aspect of it: documentaries.
I’m going to be honest: I used to hate documentaries. I’d never even watched one!
I had no reason to hate documentaries other than the fact that they seemed boring. And it’s true that some documentaries are boring as hell.
Avoid those!
Instead, opt for the interesting ones that were made with professional people, real stories, and a lot of time.
You can find some of those on Netflix! If you have a Netflix subscription, go ahead and check out all the documentaries it offers!
If you don’t have a subscription, check out Netflix’s YouTube channel! There are plenty of free documentaries on there. For example:
- 13TH
- Chasing Coral
- Knock Down The House
Conclusion
Online school can be hard. But with the help of technology, it can be fun (or at least, less terrible)! The Internet is powerful, and so is YouTube.
There are probably trillions of videos out there, and over 30 million channels. Make use of the good ones and learn!
If you’re looking for more tips about online school and studying, check out these posts:
- How To Prepare For The Start Of Online School
- 15 Tools You Need to Succeed in Online School
- Maximize Productivity During Online School in 7 Steps
- 9 Habits Every A+ Student Has
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