Podcast: 174: Dr. Dawn Bazely: Investigating the Intriguing Interactions between Animals and Plant
https://www.peoplebehindthescience.com/dr-dawn-bazely/#disqus_thread 13 mins
“If you can’t explain it to a 6-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself”.
When asked what motivational quotes Professor Bazely has held on to on the People Behind the Science podcast, she had many answers that came to her instantly, including “the world is run by people who show up” by Robert Johnson and “success is the ability to go from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm” by Winston Churchill. However, the quote that stuck with me most was “If you can’t explain it to a 6-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself” by Albert Einstein. Being in Professor Bazely’s course before, I have heard her repeat this quote many times and it has since stuck with me. It is a very simple concept in which we can all learn from. Science can be complicated, and the content can take us a lot of time, but often when studying we forget to learn the basics and skip over the simplicity of it. Understanding a concept truly would mean that one is able to understand it even in its simplest form, and what can be simpler than the explanation required by a 6-year-old? Science students and students in general need to gain a better understanding of how things work in simple forms and should not solely focus on definitions given by professors and textbooks.
I strongly agree with this quote and have applied it to my life and throughout my undergrad to recognize if I truly understand a concept by reflecting upon if I can explain it to a 6-year-old. If I cannot, then I find out what I am missing and try to relearn.
The link to the podcast is: https://www.peoplebehindthescience.com/dr-dawn-bazely/#disqus_thread if you would also like to listen you can skip to 11:03 until 14:30.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 