Karen improves Paul’s knowledge of US states

Karen asks Paul if he knows all of the US states in alphabetical order, and Paul acknowledges he doesn’t necessarily know them in order.

Karen then writes the names of all of the states on separate pieces of paper while Paul works through memorising them and creating a mnemonic, which in his case is a story.

Part of his mnemonic involves meeting his friend ‘Del’, who is very ‘aware’ (‘Del-aware’), and they went to the movies, so Paul now owes them money (‘I owe ya’/’Iowa’).

After a period of study, Karen returns to the lab and announces that Paul will now recite “at least half” of the states in order.

He gets as far as Nebraska without any assistance, but then Karen starts to give him subtle hints towards the end of the list, saying “I think you ARE doing really well right now” as a memory aid for Rhode Island (the ‘ARE’ being a reminder of the letter ‘R’), making references to “dirt” to help remind him of Washington (‘Wash-ington’), and making references to burgers as a reminder for Wisconsin (Burger Wisconsin is the name of a burger restaurant chain in New Zealand).

With Karen’s help, Paul successfully manages to complete the list.

Karen earns first place.

(Written by Will G and edited by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by JoGo and adjusted by Karl Craven)