In this episode Jepson interviews his sister, Jenny Taylor, who has worked as a molecular biologist and a wildland firefighter, and at several jobs that land in between wearing a lab coat and wielding a chainsaw. She got her online start during Covid when all the schools shut down and there was a big spike in demand for online educational content. Jenny then went on and created an amazing resource of online science courses for kids that parents can use to educate their children. She explains one of the secrets to keeping kids engaged, such as creating a mystery, and then solving it, and then we talk about the importance of passion that teachers need to have in order to really gain a reputation and get kids really excited about learning.
- Jenny’s journey and becoming Science Mom 1:00
- Making science fun 9:00
- Scaling the classroom 12:20
- Initial frustrations 14:15
- Kickstarter campaign 18:00
- What she would do differently 21:45
- Who this resonates with 23:45
- Artificial intelligence and adapting in education 25:20
- The problem with standardized testing 29:00
- Keeping kids engaged 31:00
- The importance of continuing to learn 38:35
- Regrets about TikTok 48:20
- Some takeaways and themes she’s learned 50:10
- Chat GPT 54:10
- Her legacy 56:35
- Living life in suburbia vs being more adventurous 64:40
“If you’re so concerned about your job security being tied to a test or a multiple choice assessment, I don’t know how you’re gonna teach a child passion around a topic” “Yeah I really think we’d be better off if we just got rid of standardized testing, especially in the K-5 classrooms.” 29:17
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