An Interview with TFScientist
How An Up-And-Coming Hubber Uses Hubs to Spark Your Inner Scientist
In your bio, you share that you studied Biology at Cardiff University and now teach Biology to others. What sparked your interest in this field? How has teaching been different from learning?
Saying what sparked an interest is always hard when you have held an interest for so long. I have always loved science and was lucky enough to have several inspirational teachers in this field. It was my A-level Biology teacher that inspired me to further my education in Biology. Academically at least, I think all of us have our favourite subjects due to one or two inspirational teachers that made the subject come alive. That is what I attempt to do in my own lessons.
Teaching science is fun in a different way to learning it. I get to enjoy other people’s “Eureka” moments and spur them on to experience more. I get to research and conduct more interesting (and therefore more dangerous) experiments myself. I get to legitimately make sick, simulate Earthquakes, make paper airplanes and play games – all in the name of learning! But it isn’t all fun and games: if the kids don’t learn, then I am merely an edu-tainer, instead of an entertaining educator. Marking, detentions, and phone calls are a necessary part of my day.
How many of your Hubs are connected with lessons you teach to your students? Do your students know about your Hubs?
The old adage goes “write about what you know” so my first Hubs were introductions to the cellular world. I wanted to show others that the tiny building blocks that make up all living things were universes in their own right. It then dawned on me that these articles would be useful for my A-Level (16-19year old) students. I have written a couple of Hubs specifically to supplement the learning of my students, but try to balance these with Hubs that have a wider appeal. As a teacher I am constantly looking for a new way to engage my students – by including knowledge checks, polls, videos, text and diagrams I can cover an entire topic in 1500 words in a way that the students want to engage with. HubPages allows me to create very high quality resources very easily. Overall, I reckon 75% of my Hubs are applicable to my students, but only 4 or 5 were written with them specifically in mind. I have set them homework “Read HubPages: _____Hub” twice now.
What inspired you to share your science expertise on HubPages?
I caught the writing bug whilst composing my final year project dissertation at Cardiff University and have been searching for an outlet ever since. I had tried blogging but didn’t have the discipline to maintain a decent viewership. My brother-in-law (a popular Hubber himself) told me about the website and suggested I give it a go. HubPages allowed me to see my audience growing on a daily basis – that instant gratification and constant feedback is rather addictive! On top of that, the HubPages interface is very user friendly. I didn’t have to spend hours working on format or HTML to ensure my finished articles looked professional and were user friendly.
Of all the Hubs you have written, which has received the most attention? Why do you think that's the case?
My Top 10 Science Experiments has received the most traffic – 676 views in eight days (375 in two days) – and the most comments. Why has this been successful? It is a combination of factors but ultimately I think everyone is secretly a science geek! This Hub shows that science can be easy and fun, and the experiments can be completed by all ages. Plus they make great family projects! These safe, straightforward, and simple experiments are fascinating and have a great wow factor (I love hypercooling water) without requiring any expensive or difficult equipment. I believe people want to engage with science, but dismiss it as hard or geeky – I am trying to change that attitude.
Within the biology field, you express an added interest in genetics and cytology. Most of us could roughly define genetics, but... what is cytology? Have you written any Hubs about it?
Cytology is not as complex as it sounds! Cytology is the study of cells – probably one of my most written about topics.
Science interests aside, you are a fan of rugby, reading, and singing. Do you plan on writing Hubs on those subjects as well?
I would love to broaden my writing horizons by publishing Hubs on these topics. My first 6 weeks has focussed on building a reputation within my niche of life sciences and teaching. I think I am ready to branch out from this. I may start with singing, as I don’t have much time to read at the moment – you can’t read a book in the shower! As for rugby, the RBS Six Nations Championship (the European International Rugby Tournament) has just started and my team (Wales) are off to a flyer. Overall victory will certainly inspire me to write about rugby. If we don’t win…well…as long as we beat England!
As a HubNuggets winner and popular up-and-coming Hubber, you've been very successful on the site so far. What advice would you give to fellow new Hubbers?
Before I started work on my first Hub I extensively read through the Learning Center Hubs – this answered my questions and prevented me making common mistakes. Make use of the Extreme Makeover Forums and take feedback dispassionately. Your best resource as a new Hubber is the community of established Hubbers. Much of what has made me successful has been following generally accepted advice. I tried to ensure my Hubs were:
- Evergreen
- High quality
- Original
- Categorised to encourage Hub hoppers to read more
- Providing a carefully chosen selection of links to other (very high quality) websites
- Full of Hub Karma
- Published on my social networks, and on sites such as Reddit and StumbleUpon
Recently I have tried writing Hubs to
the standards of the Flagship Hub program – although I would wait until you get a feel for writing Hubs before you do this. My first few Hubs were only 400-500 hundred words long with videos, pictures and three links each – you can always add to them or merge Hubs later on. Ultimately you must create your Hubs in a style that feels natural to you.
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