Missouri teachers virtually educate students about pandemic

A team of teachers is collaborating with the University of Missouri to develop a high school curriculum about the new coronavirus pandemic to teach to students while schools are closed.

Pat Friedrichsen, a professor of science education at MU, was awarded a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to help create a coronavirus curriculum aimed at informing Missouri high schoolers the science of the pandemic and its effects on everyday life.

Missouri schools will remain closed until the end of the academic year to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, KCUR reported.

“I think it’s really difficult for teenagers,” Friedrichsen said. “They’re very social. They want to be with their friends. And so we wanted them to understand why this policy is going to help us flatten the curve.”

The team of teachers at MU uses online modeling tools to create and teach lessons about the virus.

“Let’s say 20% of your population is physically distancing,” Friedrichsen offered an example. “What does that do to your infection curve versus if 80% of people do this?”

In Columbia, Rockbridge High School science teacher Andrew Kinslow used the virus lessons in his Contemporary Issues in Science and Society class that he teaches with a social studies teacher. He said he talked to students about flattening the curve, which is slowing down the rate of infection.

Raytown High School science teacher Christy Darter joined Friedrichsen’s team in late March after finishing a unit on viruses before schools closed.

“It was hard not to be able to see them and talk to them when I knew that they were probably upset about something that was very relevant to our class,” Darter said.

But the pandemic presented “an unprecedented opportunity” to teach students about an issue that’s relevant to everyday life, she said.

The curriculum also highlights each person’s responsibility in the pandemic’s big picture.

“In our framework, we have a component at the end where students make decisions,” Friedrichsen said. “In this case, it’s a personal decision: ‘What am I going to do in this pandemic?’”