How to productively spend your time during another lockdown
- Carlota Champalimaud
- Apr 12, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: May 5, 2021
Coming to our last week of school holidays, yet still in online learning, I would like to recommend you all to take an online course. School work and activities should be your top priority, but with so much free time, you should also partake in other activities. Creative activities like learning a new language, a new skill or a new concept are great examples of how to spend your free time in productively.
Harvard offers a wide variety of online courses in the areas of science and technology. In our first quarantine, just about a year ago, I took a course on the chemistry in cooking. I enjoy chemistry, and I thought it would be a nice idea to expand my knowledge. It was an amazing opportunity to be able to learn about organic chemistry from Harvard professors. It lasted 12 weeks and I must say those were three very challenging months. Even though anyone can take these Harvard courses, they are essentially elective classes that undergraduate students at Harvard take.
This year however, I decided to challenge myself to learn something new, rather than learning more about a subject I already know and enjoy. That is why I recently registered for the Harvard online course named “CS50 – introduction to computer science”. This class is 11 weeks long and requires around 10 to 15 hours a week of work. However, it is self-paced, so if you have other priorities (like schoolwork) you can work fewer hours in a certain week. I just finished my first week of class and I can say that it is an incredible experience.
As someone who is focused on science and math, it might come as a surprise that in the past, I didn’t enjoy computer science. It is rather strange because computer science is just another branch of science, like chemistry, and physics. After having watched only two lectures of this introductory class, I can say that I hope to be able to program various software in the future.
The Harvard online courses are focused on science and technology, but their wide variety of courses also include business, law, and economics. There are also other universities like NYU for example, that have wonderful online courses. Furthermore, most of the courses are available for free and new courses are frequently being released. Bellow this article you will also be able to see a few links to my favorite classes at Harvard, as well as the course catalogues for other online course-offering universities.
So please take the time today to look at the course catalogues and find a course you are interested in. Rather than spending your time watching a tv-show, use your time wisely, and watch a lecture.
A few of my favorite courses currently available:
CS50 - Introduction To Computer Science
Energy Within Environmental Constraints
The Health Effects of Climate Change
Becomes a More Resilient Leader In Turbulent Times
Course catalogues
Harvard course catalogue:
NYU course catalogue
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