Academic & Study Help
Science Help
The best free YouTube channels for science help - chemistry, physics, and biology explained step by step by real teachers, all free with no course and no email wall.
3 personally vetted, completely free channels that teach this step by step
Scroll down to explore each channel - and use the copy buttons on each one to drop a comment letting them know you found them through The Vault Library.
Science Help, For When the Textbook Reads Like It Was Written to Confuse You
Science has a translation problem. The ideas themselves are often simple and even beautiful, but somewhere between the discovery and your textbook, they got wrapped in jargon so dense that the whole thing feels impossible. It is not that you cannot understand photosynthesis or Newton's laws. It is that nobody has explained them to you in plain English yet.
That is exactly what the channels below do, and every one of them is free.
The two jobs science help has to do
Good science teaching does two jobs. First, it explains the concept in plain language so it actually makes sense - what is happening and why. Second, it shows you how to work the problems, because a chemistry or physics class will ask you to calculate, not just understand. The channels here cover both, and it helps to know which one you need on a given night.
If you are lost on what a thing even is, start with the explainers. If you understand the idea but cannot do the homework, go to the step by step problem channels. Most students need both at different moments, sometimes in the same evening.
Learn it in the order the subject is built
Science stacks the way math does. Chemistry leans on a little math, biology leans on a little chemistry, and physics leans on both. If a topic feels impossible, the problem is often a missing piece from earlier in the chain. The channels below are organized into playlists that follow the natural order of each subject, so you can back up and fill the gap instead of grinding against a wall.
How to make it stick
Watch the explanation, then close the video and try to say it back out loud in your own words, as if you were teaching it to someone else. If you can, you understand it. If you get stuck halfway, you just found the exact spot to rewatch. It is the fastest way to turn watching into actually knowing.
No textbook required and no course to buy. Pick the subject you are fighting with, find the video that explains it like a human, and let it finally make sense.
3 free channels worth your time
Professor Dave Explains
Visit channel on YouTube →Professor Dave taught high school and college science for a decade before building one of the most complete free science libraries on YouTube. He covers chemistry, physics, biology, and astronomy in clear, step by step videos with no course to buy and no email wall - just optional support if you want to give it. His playlists are organized like a curriculum, so you can start at the beginning of a subject and work straight through. If you need to understand a science topic for a class or a test and want it explained plainly by someone who has actually taught it, this is where to go.
To help keep us growing, copy this and put it on the first video you watched. We would really appreciate it.
Michel van Biezen
Visit channel on YouTube →Michel van Biezen is a physics professor who has posted more than ten thousand free lectures covering physics, chemistry, astronomy, math, and engineering. There is no course funnel and no paywall - just an enormous, carefully organized library of short lessons that each tackle one concept or problem type. When you are stuck on a specific physics or engineering topic, the odds are high he has a clear, worked example for exactly that. For students in tough STEM courses who need a patient second explanation, few channels go as deep or as wide for free.
To help keep us growing, copy this and put it on the first video you watched. We would really appreciate it.
Amoeba Sisters
Visit channel on YouTube →The Amoeba Sisters are a former biology teacher and her cartoonist sister who make free, genuinely funny biology videos that students actually remember. The videos are always free and never locked behind anything - biology explained with humor, clear visuals, and the kind of simple analogies that make a hard concept finally stick. They release new videos steadily and cover the core topics of high school and intro college biology. If biology feels like a wall of vocabulary you cannot memorize, the Amoeba Sisters turn it into something that makes sense and even sticks.
To help keep us growing, copy this and put it on the first video you watched. We would really appreciate it.
Frequently asked questions
Which channel is best for my science subject?
For a clear overview of almost any subject, start with CrashCourse or Professor Dave Explains. For physics and engineering problems, Michel van Biezen goes deep. For biology that actually sticks, the Amoeba Sisters are hard to beat.
Are these science channels free?
Completely. Every channel here teaches for free with no course to buy and no email required. A couple accept optional donations, but every lesson is open to anyone.
Do these cover AP and college science?
Yes. Professor Dave Explains and Michel van Biezen both go to college and AP depth in chemistry, physics, and beyond, and CrashCourse covers the core of most high school and intro college courses. They work well as a second explanation when your class moves too fast.
I understand the concept but cannot do the problems. What helps?
Go to the channels that work through problems step by step - Michel van Biezen for physics, and Professor Dave for chemistry - and do the problems along with them, pausing to try each step yourself before they show it. Understanding and problem solving are two different skills, and the second one comes from practice.