Mary: Id like to welcome Charles Long to the studio today. Charles has just published an article in New Science journal about memorisation. Its all about how to make our memory function better.
Charles, exam time is looming and therell be lots of teenagers tuning in today. Can you give us some advice about improving our ability to memorise?
Charles: Hello! Yes, of course. Id like to start by talking about the process of memorisation. Its vital that we understand the process if we want to make adjustments to the way we function. We all use memory in the same way. It doesnt matter whether youre a student revising for your finals or an adult standing in the aisle of a supermarket, trying to recall a particular item from a grocery list.
Mary: Ha ha! Thats me. I always forget to take my list.
Charles: You and thousands of other people too, Mary. We learn to use our memory when we are still at nursery school. Young children are naturally very good at working out how to remember things. The tips Im going to share today are based on the things we used to do to help us remember when we were children. The process of memorisation occurs in two distinct forms. Do you know what they are?
Mary: Are they long-term memory and short-term memory?
Charles: Thats right! But these arent completely separate concepts. We use a combination of both types of memory when we want to formulate our thoughts and recall information, whether were trying to remember something from a decade ago or just an hour earlier.
Mary: So what tips have you got for improving the quality of our memory?
Charles: Right. Lets start with association.
Mary: Association?
Charles: Yes. We can use word association to remember an idea or a concept. This means choosing a word or phrase you associate with what you are trying to remember. The word needs to be something familiar, that you come into contact with on a daily basis. So, for example, you can use the name of your pet dog to remember a scientific equation. Try it! Read the equation a few times and then say your dogs name again and again. Later, in your science exam, just recall the name and the whole equation should come back to you.
Mary: It sounds too good to be true! What else, Charles?
Charles: Visualisation is another trick we can use. So, you have to visualise an image that is connected to the thing you need to remember. For example, if you want to remember the date that the Berlin Wall came down, you might visualise a picture of a wall with the date written on it in graffiti. The image of the wall becomes an important part of what you will remember. You can use several images in a row to remember things like information in a text or a list of ingredients for a recipe.
Mary: Yes, that makes sense.
Charles: Singing can help with memorisation too.
Mary: Singing?
Charles: Yeah. So instead of reading a text aloud, you sing it. Singing is one of most effective and earliest memory tricks that are used for learning new concepts. I used to sing lists of historical facts and dates. It works.
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Mary: And did you have to sing aloud in your history exams?
Charles: Not aloud! But I did used to sing in my head. And I always got good marks for history.
Mary: Any more tips, Charles?
Charles: Yes! Ive saved the best one till last. Its particularly relevant for any students who have tuned in. Teach it.
Mary: Teach it? Teach what?
Charles: Teach whatever it is that you want to remember. So, if youre studying for an English exam, teach the concepts to someone else. It can be a real person - a friend in a study group is ideal - or it can be a pretend person. You can just imagine someone is listening to you as you teach. Better still, record yourself teaching and then play back the video to revise the material further.
Mary: That sounds like a great tip or trick.
Charles: Yes, it really works because in order to teach something you need to understand it. Teaching reinforces the understanding. And although these sound like tricks, they arent really.
Mary: No?
Charles: No. They are just simple ways that we can train our brains to be more effective. By getting into the habit of using word association, visualisation, singing and teaching, our brains develop and work better for us. And of course, that has a knock-on effect on our memory and our abilities to recall all kinds of data.
Mary: Thank you, Charles. Now, I think weve got time for a couple of questions from our listeners.
How to study
Good morning. Today Im going to talk about how to study. Now you probably think you know all about that, right? Youve been studying for years. And I expect some of you are fantastic at studying, really organised and good at concentrating. But theres always room for improvement, and your exams arent far away, so these tips are for all of you.
Right, so, whats the best way to study? Well, first of all, its a good idea to have some kind of plan or timetable. This could be for the week or a longer revision timetable for an exam, from one month to six months. Yes, if youre studying for an important exam its important to think long term. Draw up a timetable, but revise it often. If its not going to plan, you may have to rethink it.
Next, think about your environment. Make sure the place where you are going to study is comfortable with enough light, air, etc. Not too hot, not too cold. Make sure there are no distracting noises around, such as television. If you think you concentrate better listening to music, experiment and see if its really true. Some people really do seem to work better with music in the background, especially classical music, but for many people it spoils their concentration. However, if you have to work near a TV, you might have to use headphones to play music to drown out the sound of the TV. In this case, find out what kind of music works best for you, maybe something without words. By the way, you might think you work fine with the TV on, but, again, experiment. You might be surprised at how much better you work away from a TV. Oh, and the other thing is the internet, text messages, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Forget about all of that while youre studying. No, really, you can ignore it for an hour or so; it wont be the end of the world if you dont reply to a message immediately.
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Right, planning breaks. Plan your study periods in chunks with regular breaks. Many people recommend half an hour of concentrated study, then a ten-minute break. But you can adjust this to suit you. If you study for too long at a stretch your mind will work less effectively, so be careful. In your short break, you can give yourself a treat, such as a cup of green tea. I wouldnt advise a chocolate bar as a treat a sugar rush is not great for concentration.
OK, so next lets think about what you do when youre studying. Some people just read through their notes or textbooks and underline in pencil or highlight important bits. If this works for you, fine, but Id suggest that its better to write notes of some kind, so your mind is processing the information more. This way you are also producing material which will be useful for last-minute revision. I dont recommend very last-minute revision, by the way, but well come back to that later.
Have a look at these examples of student notes. Which do you think are best? The first person has written important phrases at random, the next has a table with clear headings and boxes with notes, the next has summaries, and the last one has mind maps: youve got the main topic in the circle, then lines coming off the circle attached to subcategories, then more lines to further details. Mind maps are great for showing the connections between different bits of information. They seem to work in the same way the brain works. So, what do you think? To me, the first one wouldnt be very useful to come back to and use in the future. But the others are all fine it depends on your personal preference. Mine is for mind maps. I would suggest using colours, though, and even little drawings. They can make things much more memorable.
Obviously, when you are studying, the first thing to think about is whether you understand the information, and the second thing is how you are going to remember it. Lets look at some more ways of making information more memorable
My hero
A (Girl 1): My hero isnt very famous, but she ought to be. Shes Mary Anning, who was only 12 years old and from a poor family when she made an amazing discovery. She found the first dinosaur skeleton, that of an ichthyosaur, on the cliffs of Lyme Regis in the south of England. That was in 1811, and until then people had thought that it was impossible for an animal to become extinct. Because she was a woman and didnt have enough money for a proper education, she wasnt able to take part properly in the scientific community of the time. But she read as much scientific literature as she could and continued to search for fossils, often risking her own life to get them by climbing dangerous cliffs. She once nearly died in a landslide which killed her dog. Although she didnt write famous books about fossils, her contribution to paleontology, the study of fossils, is said to be enormous. I admire her because she kept on trying to make new discoveries at a time when usually only men, and men with money, were allowed to be scientists. After her death the writer Charles Dickens said that the carpenters daughter has won a name for herself, and has deserved to win it.
B (Boy 1): My hero is Kailash Satyarthi, who has been campaigning against child slavery for years. He is from India and first became aware of the problem of children working when he was 6 and noticed that a boy younger than himself had to spend all day polishing shoes and was unable to go to school. When he was 11, he began to collect money to help buy textbooks for other children, and when he was 26 he gave up his job as an electrical engineer to fight child slavery in India, by doing things like raiding factories where children were forced to work, making rugs or glass bottles. He introduced a programme first called Rug Mark, now known as Goodweave, which puts tags on child-labour-free rugs made in factories. He has saved many thousands of children, over 80,000, from a terrible life of enforced labour in South Asia and helped them to get an education. He has often been physically attacked for helping children, for example for trying to free Nepalese children forced to work in a circus. He regularly risks his life to fight injustice; two of his colleagues have been murdered. I believe that the best thing he has done is to change how people think about child slavery and to make it an international issue.
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C (Boy 2): Im really interested in ecology and my hero, or heroine, is Rachel Carson because she first got people thinking about the way we humans are causing permanent damage to the Earths ecosystems. She began as a biologist, specialising in writing about the sea, but she gradually became aware of the danger of using pesticides like DDT and the way they can harm the whole of the food chain, from the worm to humans! She wrote her classic book Silent Spring in 1962 to explain this to the general public, to explain how humans and nature are interdependent. The title of Silent Spring refers to the fact that one day all the birds might be dead so they wont be able to sing in the springtime. The agricultural and chemical industries reacted very badly to the book and said she was unprofessional. But further research by other scientists proved that she was right about the dangers of chemicals used to kill insects. Nowadays there is a growing movement for organic food production, but unfortunately things in general are still getting worse, rather than better. We still need to read Rachel Carsons book and think about its message.
D (Girl 2): My choice of hero isnt very original, Im afraid, but hes the person I would most like to have met: John Lennon. He died a long time before I was born, and his most famous songs were written long before that, but when I listen to his music I really feel as if hes speaking to me personally. I love the whole range of the Beatles music, from the early pop songs to the very experimental music at the end of their time as a group. John Lennon was the most innovative writer in the Beatles and he continued to create exciting music when he left and went solo. But although I love his music, what I admire about him is his dedication to universal peace. Its amazing that the song Imagine, written in 1971, is still incredibly popular after all this time. Its about a world where everyone can be equal, a world with no wars, no divisions between countries, no greed, no hunger, no material possessions... Id like to meet him because he was a lifelong rebel, and although he could be a difficult person, he was original, clever and funny. It was awful that he was killed in 1980 when he was only 40. I wonder what he would be doing if he was alive now.
New inventions
Presenter: Welcome to Tech-Today! This week its National Science & Engineering Week, so to celebrate we asked Jed our science correspondent to give us a round-up of new inventions.
Jed: Hi, yes, Ive got some very interesting things to tell you about today, starting with a fun one. Wing-suits, those suits that look like bats and allow people to fly, or glide, at least. Theyre the ultimate in cool.
Presenter: But, theyre not very new, are they?
Jed: Well, no, but the modern ones are better than ever and last October was the first ever world championship in China. The price is coming down, too. Now you can buy one for 600 to 2,000 dollars. Its still too expensive for me, but I suppose itll keep coming down.
Presenter: OK, what about useful new inventions?
Jed: There are lots of those. Theres a new solar water distiller created by Gabriele Diamanti aimed at parts of the world where its hard to get clean drinking water. You pour in salty water and let the sun do the work for a few hours. Then, hey presto! You have clean water! Its a very simple device and fairly cheap to produce.
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Presenter: Can I hear some doubt in your voice?
Jed: Well, they still need help with investment to start producing the distiller properly. So, if anyone out there has money to invest in a great product ?
Presenter: Absolutely. Get in touch with the designers.
Jed: Another useful invention which it would be good to see in production are enable talk gloves. These were invented by some Ukrainian students to allow people with speech and hearing impairments to communicate with people who dont understand sign language. The gloves use sensors to translate sign language into text, then into spoken language using a smartphone. A brilliant invention!
Presenter: Yes, that could benefit thousands of people.
Jed: Another useful invention comes from a surprising source, James Cameron, the film director.
Presenter: The 'Titanic' director?
Jed: The very same. Cameron was part of a team, headed by engineer Ron Allum, which designed the Deepsea Challenger Submarine, capable of descending to the lowest parts of the sea, 10 km down. Last year Cameron went down to the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the sea in the world. He was the first person to do a solo dive there, and he stayed for three hours, the longest time so far.
Presenter: That sounds impressive!
Jed: Yes. We know so little about whats at the bottom of the ocean, and its important to find out more. OK, so now for something useful in a different way. You know that feeling when youre trying to get tomato ketchup out of a bottle and it wont come out, but youre sure theres lots more in there?
Presenter: Yeah, of course. Its really annoying.
Jed: Well, a team of students at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have come up with a new product that you use to coat a glass or plastic bottle, and then whats inside, hair gel or mustard, or whatever, comes out really easily.
Presenter: So, it saves hours of frustration trying to get stuff out of bottles?
Jed: Exactly. Right, now for my favourite invention. This is really silly, but I love it. Its a way of producing clouds indoors.
Presenter: Clouds?
Jed: Yes. A Dutch artist has come up with a way of forming perfect, small, white clouds inside. Theyre just beautiful. I dont think you can do it yourself at home yet, though.
Presenter: I dont think Id want to.
Jed: Oh, you would if youd seen the photos. Theyre amazing.
Presenter: OK, Jed, thanks for that. Well leave you with your head in the clouds and see you again next week!
Sports interviews
Presenter: Now the 2020 Olympics might seem a long way away to you, but people are already talking about what new sports might be included. Today Im going to talk to two people who are hoping their sport might be included. The first is Jonny Mills whose sport is wakeboarding. Jonny, can you tell us what wakeboarding is? Is it like surfboarding?
Jonny: Well, a bit. It started in California because people wanted to surf but didnt have waves... Its also a bit like waterskiing in that the rider is towed behind a specially-built speed boat.
Presenter: How fast does the boat go?
Jonny: Usually at about 25 mph, or a bit less. The rider uses the wake the board produces in the water to launch into the air.
Presenter: And then you do a lot of complicated things in the air?
Jonny: Thats right, spins of up to 1260 degrees, things like that.
Presenter: 1260 degrees, thats impossible isnt it?
Jonny: Oh no, but its pretty crazy. You spin round three and a half times in the air.
Presenter: And then you have to land again without falling over.
Jonny: Youll have to come and watch some wakeboarding if you havent seen any. Come to Wakestock in July if you can.
Presenter: Thats in Wales, isnt it?
Jonny: Yep, Abersoch in North Wales. Its a really popular wakeboarding and music festival. Its right by the beach. Its not quite the same as California, but its cool. It attracts a lot of great riders.
Presenter: Who does wakeboarding?
Jonny: They reckon about 3 million people all over the world. More guys do it, but there are increasing numbers of girls too. The people who compete are usually in their teens or twenties, but anyone can do it. Theres a lot of crossover with other board sports like surfing and skateboarding. The tricks people pull are similar and the names for things are often the same.
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Presenter: And looking at you, Id say the fashion was similar too.
Jonny: Yeah, the clothes and the lifestyle are similar.
Presenter: Right, now Id like to ask Jules Russell about her sport. Shes a skater in a roller derby team. Tell us about that, Jules. Is it a popular sport?
Jules: Yes, its becoming really popular in the UK. There are about 60 leagues in England and 1,200 throughout the world. In the US and Canada, of course, and places like Scandinavia and Australia, but lots of other countries too.
Presenter: The sport began in the States, didnt it?
Jules: Yes, in the 1930s, but it was more for entertainment than sport and it died out by the 1970s. Then there was a revival in Texas in 2001 and from then on, its just been growing and growing.
Presenter: So how do you play it?
Jules: Well, you have two teams of five people on roller skates, of course, and they go round an oval track in the same direction. Each team has a "jammer" who scores points by passing members of the opposing team. They do whatever they can to stop her, within reason. The team with the most points at the end of the match wins.
Presenter: It sounds a bit rough!
Jules: Well, its a contact sport, so theres bound to be a lot of pushing and falling over. Its all good fun, though; people dont often get hurt. If you try and trip someone up you get penalised. You do try and frighten the other team a bit though.
Presenter: Thats right. You have frightening clothes and special names.
Jules: People used to have incredible costumes a couple of years ago. Now the sport is changing and becoming more professional. Lots of the teams train three or four times a week, and spend a lot of time in the gym you have to be really dedicated and fit. We still have nicknames, though. Im The Julifier.
Presenter: And is the sport all female?
Jules: There are a few men who do it, but its mostly female and amateur at the moment. Things are changing fast though, so who knows what the future will bring. It would be fantastic to be an Olympic sport.
Presenter: What do you think about roller derby, Jonny?
Jonny: Its wild! Those ladies scare me to death! Good luck to them with the Olympics thing though. And good luck to us too.
Presenter: Good luck to you both.
The best job in the world
Once again, the organisation which promotes Australia, Tourism Australia, is advertising the best job in the world. But this year, they have six jobs going, all for six months, with a great salary and extra spending money. If you think one of these is your dream job, you have to make a 30-second video explaining why you are the best person for the role. But be warned. Thousands of people will be competing for each post.
The job of 'outback adventurer' is for someone with a passion for outdoor life, and in the Northern Territory there are plenty of wide-open spaces. The job is for someone to find out the best adventures and jobs for young people on working holidays. Youd be getting close to wildlife, sleeping under the stars in a bush camp and flying over stunningly beautiful landscape in a hot air balloon. Your duties will include getting to know about aboriginal culture and eating traditional bushfoods, maybe including the famous witchetty grubs insect larva.
Like the idea of 200 days of sunshine every year? Job number two is a park ranger in tropical Queensland. Its a wonderful state with ancient rainforests, the worlds largest sand island and the awesome Great Barrier Reef. Here your duties would include protecting and promoting native plants and animals, spectacular waterfalls, dinosaur fossils, untouched beaches and indigenous culture. Youd get paid to patrol the beaches of Lizard Island and live a life most people can only dream about.
Another island job is as 'wildlife caretaker' on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. If you love all kinds of animals, this is the job for you. The advert says youll be able to talk to wallabies (a kind of small kangaroo), play with dolphins, cuddle koalas and sunbathe with seals on the unspoilt beach at Seal Bay. You would get about the island on foot, by bicycle, kayak or boat, taking photos and leaving only footprints. There is one potential drawback, though. Youd need to be pretty brave since you might come face to face with great white sharks.
Maybe you are not quite so keen on the great outdoors and your talents are more journalistic. If you fancy feature writing, photography and making videos, you can apply for the position of lifestyle photojournalist for Time Out in Melbourne. You would be required to photograph and write about the city's coolest cafés and musical events. But youd also cover tourist activities in the whole state of Victoria, including surfing on the Great Ocean Road, skiing at Mount Hotham or watching the little penguins at Phillip Island.
Are you a foodie? Do you know about food, as well as love eating it? If the answer's yes, you can apply for the role of 'taste master' in Western Australia. Your job would be to promote the best restaurants, pubs, wineries and breweries. Youd also catch fresh seafood off the beautiful coast and learn all about making wine and beer.
Finally, a fantastic job in Sydney. Weve all seen those amazing firework displays in Sydney Harbour. Well, you could be one of the people making that happen next year. New South Wales is looking for a 'chief funster', who would be based in Sydney while travelling around the state and tweeting about the coolest things going on. This job would appeal to someone interested in everything: sports, the arts, entertainment, food. Youd also be involved in making the Sydney Festival, Mardi Gras and Vivid Festival as spectacular, and as fun, as possible.
