 If you think I get fired up about flipping, then you know me well. Another thing that I get super fired up about is the external brain. The external brain is something that I learned about from a conference, a human anatomy and physiology society conference, I think, like shortly after I started flipping. And John Runyon from the University of Oregon, Godox, he did a presentation on the external brain and I was like, oh my gosh, that is game changing. So I promptly went home and implemented the external brain. And let me tell you about this thing. Essentially, the external brain, again, like so many of my assignments, it's something that you should be doing anyway. You probably already make external brain type documents in your classes if you are super engaged with the content. It's a notebook. It's held in a notebook, although I have had students, I had a student one semester who did his external brain. I'm not kidding you. He did it in like a little bound book that was this big. And I was like, are you serious? And I'd open it up and I'd look in there and the writing was like microscopic. But can you read that? He's like, oh, I got this. Like rocked the class, like A plus rocked my class. That external brain clearly worked for his learning style. Most people put their external brain content in a three-ring notebook. Most people end up with these giant three-ring notebooks so that they can have all the information that they want in there. But basically, you create a document that will help you with the course. The motivation for you to do this is, number one, I check it so you get points for doing it. So that's awesome. Number two, I give external brain exams, a certain number each semester, and on an external brain exam, which usually happens on the same day as another exam usually. The external brain exam is open external brain, which means you can use any of the information that's in your external brain. There are some rules. You cannot put, like, your textbook chapters. Print them out and put them in your external brain. No. You can't put my lecture notes, like the handouts. I wish I had some to show you, but I don't. If I typed it up and made it, you can't just put three-hole punch and stick it in your external brain. You can't put lab handouts in your external brain. However, you can write anything that you create. You can put in there. So if you wanted to copy the lab notes or the lab handouts, copy it in your own handwriting. Go for it. If you feel like that's the best way for you to solidify the material, by all means. Lab data, I highly recommend, that goes into your external brain. Your external brain is sort of like a lab notebook type thing to keep you on test, because on the external brain exam, I could ask you to analyze lab data. If you've got all your lab data in there with the analysis that you've already done, you're like, dude, I did that, and now I can figure it out. Images, especially in anatomy, where we're labeling parts of bones, it's helpful to have images in there. And not all of us, myself included, are fantastic artists. As you watch the video lectures, you will see this about me. However, you are allowed to put someone else's image into your external brain, as long as it's unlabeled when it goes in. It's unlabeled when it goes in, but then you knock yourself out, label that thing. As long as it's in your writing that you labeled it, that's a totally legit way to do an external brain. So I have an example for you. This is from one of my very favorite students of ever, except she did not put the accurate course name. She apparently reused her Zoology 214 notebook. That's cool. I forgive her for that. But this is what she did for her. Oh, jeez. I want to be able to see too. I'm going to show you in a second. I'm going to put it up there so you can see it, but I have to finish telling you first. This is her choice. There are no requirements for this thing. If you put in just the notes you take during video lectures, that's perfect. If you put in just the notes you take during class activities, that's perfect. It really is your document. You won't be judged on your quantity. You might be advised to include some stuff that's not included in there. That's fine. But can you see this? She included images. Oh, dude. That's my finger. Oh, there we go. She drew some. She included images. She cut them out. They're not labeled. She labeled them. Okay, yeah, that's pretty much worthless. But if you want to check this thing out when you come to class because you're like, oh, I don't know, I would be happy to share it with you. Now, this, the external brain that I showed you, is actually on the minimal end of external brains. Some of them are unbelievable. I had another student who's a graffiti artist. Another one of my favorite humans on the planet. And his external brain was like, like you wanted to frame it and stick it on the wall. I've actually asked him to borrow his external brain so I could share it with people. Sort of backfires because then my students are like, oh my God, I can't do that. Well, no one can except for this particular student. But he also was like, Riggs, I know you. I'm not letting you borrow my external brain because it's going to disappear. External brains often become things that sit on your shelf. And for those of you who are going into health care, I've heard many stories of people referring back to the external brains that they built in these courses. Which is, that's really cool. It's your work. It's what you need. It's the way that you're going to remember things. You're building something to solidify that knowledge in your head. External brain checks and external brain exams, where you get to use your external brain to take an exam. That's how you're going to be assessed. Now, let's talk about some specific things for your class. Like the materials that are required and the specific assignments and breakdowns for each class. And then this syllabus lecture is done.