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Education Dive
Educators find applications for coronavirus across curriculum
Shawna De La Rosa
March 11, 2020
Dive Brief:
Teachers around the country are incorporating the novel coronavirus
into lessons plans, seeing the hot news topic as an opportunity to
engage students and put the situation into perspective as fear and
uncertainty rise, EdSurge reports.
Some teachers incorporate games into the classroom to demonstrate how
often we touch our faces and to discourage it. There are also projects
that dive into how coronavirus impacts the body, and the lessons also
give educators an opportunity to guide students on how to properly vet
information sources.
The topic fits well with 3D learning models, which scaffold information
to build to the next question, while also meeting life science
standards that detail the difference between bacterial and viral
infections. Additionally, it fits science and engineering practices
skills, which teach students to ask questions and define problems.
Dive Insight:
Novel coronavirus is a history-making health threat developing before
students’ eyes. And while they may be engaged in details as it
develops, this is not all good news for teachers. Many, for example,
are still preparing students for upcoming AP tests and state
standardized assessments.
Jill Ronstadt at Orange Lutheran High School in Orange, California, is
among those who had to seek a balance between test prep and virus
information, ultimately settling on dedicating a few minutes before
class to let students get their questions out before she dives into
test prep.
The rampant spread of information, and misinformation, gives teachers
of other subjects the opportunity to address the topic, as well. The
health crisis is relevant to statistics, algebra and media literacy.
Students can write equations to predict the spread of a pandemic or
analyze statistics from the World Health Organization. Developing
patterns can demonstrate why it’s important to contain a virus early.
Teachers can also use coronavirus lessons to address racism and debunk
the reasons behind why some feel prejudice toward those of Chinese or
Asian ancestry during this outbreak.
Will Reed, a high school STEM teacher at Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep
in Chicago, wrote a National Science Teacher Association blog on how to
leverage the science in the news. “What better way to drive student
interest than by drawing from current news headlines?” he asked.
Reed recommends asking students to form clear questions or to ask
students questions about the virus and to explain the idea of
scientific consensus.
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