Abstract
As COVID-19 accelerated through spring of 2020 the question became how will schools cope with protracted closure? Devising strategies to engage and educate students through full-time, online learning became a priority. At Tufts CSE we specialize in creating high school biomedical science curricula that foster engagement with science and build scientific and health literacy, however our popular ‘Great Diseases’ curricula is wholly classroom-based. In response our scientist/teacher co-design team created a new, fully online curriculum: ‘The Great Pandemic of 2020’. The materials are targeted to 10th -12th grades and use student-centered and self-paced approaches to learning. It retains our signature format of Socratic inquiry, multiple pedagogical approaches, and extensive scientific reading and math while focusing on both the underlying science and public health measures needed to mitigate COVID-19. Here we describe how we created the curriculum and the challenges we encountered: Which emerging information is reliable? Which topics do we select and how do we keep them current? What constitutes an engaging, effective and seamless online learning experience? How can teachers monitor and assess student work? How can we instill confidence to use the curriculum when teachers may lack the basic information underlying it? How can we evaluate and disseminate it effectively? We also discuss lessons learned in the context of teaching about 21st century biomedical science, and the growing acknowledgement by teachers and students that it is encroaching constantly on daily life.
Highlights
The first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the U.S.at the end of January 2020 and by late February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned schools that they needed to prepare for coronavirus
At the end of January 2020 and by late February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned schools that they needed to prepare for coronavirus
The module was created using the principles of collaborative co-design we have previously developed for the Great Diseases curriculum
Summary
The first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the U.S. at the end of January 2020 and by late February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned schools that they needed to prepare for coronavirus. The primary missions of the Tufts Center for Science Education (CSE) are to engage high school students in real-world science and give them the tools to make informed decisions about their health and disease management. Our flagship vehicle ‘The Great Diseases’ (GD) is a year-long modular curriculum for high school students that links critical understanding of the current science behind health and disease with higher-level health literacy skills such as claims evaluation and risk assessment (Jacque et al, 2013, 2014). Using the GD platform as a basis for online teaching and learning about the science and public health behind the COVID-19 pandemic seemed an obvious strategy; GD was designed exclusively for active, in-class learning and was not directly portable to an online environment
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