Guest post by Will Reed

As science teachers, particularly those of us working to implement three-dimensional (3-D) instruction in our classroom, we strive to make learning relevant to student experiences, engaging them in phenomena that have meaning in their own lives and enabling them to contextualize the learning. What better way to drive student interest than by drawing from current news headlines? Your students are probably already asking you questions about what they see on various media channels. A prime example of such a headline is the recent novel coronavirus, first documented in Wuhan, China.

Although current world events may be unrelated, or only tangentially related, to planned investigative units of study, science teachers will still find great value in answering student questions in a way that is consistent with the vision for science learning described in A Framework for K-12 Science Education. We should consider a general framework for addressing questions students have about current world events (phenomena), engaging students in science and engineering practices to make sense of those current events when possible. Appropriate initial responses include asking students to clarify the motivation for their questions and eliciting student ideas and feelings about the events, as well as additional questions.

Our follow-up responses may then include the following: 

1. Validating student interest, questions, and ideas
2. Asking students to clarify their questions or ideas by posing questions to students
3. Explaining scientific consensus to students
4. Implementing stand-alone lessons rooted in students’ questions and interests
5. Implementing investigative units rooted in students’ questions and interests.

Follow-up responses 1 and 2 are likely appropriate in all cases.

Response 3, explaining concepts to students directly, may not be rooted in 3-D learning. Still, it may be necessary–for example, when there is no room in the planned curriculum for a new 3-D unit of study but students are worried about hygiene in response to the coronavirus outbreak or want information about where the virus is and is not being actively transmitted. The trick is attending to students’ needs without leaving students with the impression that “telling” is the root of science learning. To do so would be detrimental to 3-D learning. We must be especially thoughtful in implementing response 3 so as to not alienate students from their identities as sense makers. 

Responses 4 and 5 have the potential to leverage current events to develop student’s science ideas and use of science and engineering practices. Teams of teachers and curriculum developers should work together to design 3-D lessons and units rooted in common student questions and interests around current media events, including events related to disease, global change, or discovery and exploration. Response 5–whole instructional units that incorporate student development of core science ideas and concepts through the use of cascading science practices–may be infeasible in the initial aftermath of a new media event, though it may be more feasible to incorporate current events into existing instructional units when the event is relevant to the science ideas developed the unit.

Supporting student use of the science and engineering practices in classrooms to make sense of current events has the potential to function as a bridge (one among many, hopefully) for students to connect school science learning and their ongoing sensemaking of the world outside of school. In addition to developing science and engineering ideas and crosscutting concepts, practice-driven investigation of current events can be used to help students develop media literacy, social-emotional skills, or other disciplinary practices and ideas, for example from the social sciences. 

Finally, a large body of research going back decades exists on incorporating socio-scientific issues in the science classroom. Supports also exist for teachers to incorporate science news (reporting recently published research of all kinds) into their classrooms on a more regular basis. 

In short, designing a 3D lesson involving a current event like the novel coronavirus first reported in Wuhan, China, it is important to both attend to student interest and emotions as well as to broader curricular goals. 

Interested in teaching a current world event (phenomenon-drive) lesson on the novel Wuhan coronavirus? We’ve got a lesson plan perfect for you!

Check out our learning center collection for free materials that you can use in our classroom right away.

Will Reed is a high school STEM teacher at Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep in Chicago. He has also contributed to curriculum development for organizations such as nexgenstorylines.org, InquiryHub, and OpenSciEd. He has taught math, physical sciences, life sciences, Earth and space sciences, and engineering at various levels from 5th grade to college, and has experience facilitating science teacher professional development for pre-K-12 teachers for Chicago Public Schools, the Illinois State Board of Education, and NSTA. As a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher, Will spent the first half of 2019 living in the Netherlands learning from Dutch STEM educators. He believes that all students deserve access to meaningful, joy-filled science education and that professional communities of science educators are key to making this possible.

Author: William Reed, High School STEM Teacher at Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep, Chicago, IL

Grade Level: Secondary

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, students will generate and prioritize questions about the novel COVID-19 and evaluate scientific and/or technical information from multiple authoritative sources, assessing the evidence and usefulness of each source for answering their prioritized questions.

Note to teachers:
Because of documented cases of unfounded and harmful racially-driven responses to the outbreak as well as disproportionate (based on the available evidence) fear of the virus by individual students in the United States, students will also discuss appropriate and inappropriate responses to the outbreak. 
Finally, because developments in the novel coronavirus story are currently in rapid flux, you may also choose to engage students in obtaining and evaluating more recent reliable sources.

Materials
Google Slides
Student Note-catcher

Teaching Guidance
This lesson consists of three segments: connecting prior knowledge to the novel coronavirus global outbreak (lesson parts 1-2), making sense of the novel coronavirus (lesson parts 3-4), and examining people’s negative bias toward Chinese citizens at home and abroad (lesson part 5). Lesson part 6 offers students an opportunity for reflection on the lesson as a whole.

Part 1: Lesson Launch – Videoclip (32 minutes)

Begin by showing a recent video from a newscast about the coronavirus. Ask students to capture a few noticings from the video clip in their notes or on the student handout. (4 minutes)

Ask students to individually write about three things- their current understandings, their feelings, and their questions about the coronavirus. (5 minutes)

Have students briefly discuss their responses in small groups and then lead a whole-class discussion, recording at the front of the room the classes’ understandings, feelings, and questions in separate categories. Gather as many student questions as possible (you could use a one-question-per-sticky-note method) while supporting students in drawing connections between their questions. (10 minutes) 

Continuing the whole class discussion, ask students to consider how we might prioritize their questions for investigation. Which questions seem bigger or more important to address first? Students are likely to prioritize questions regarding action- what we can do to respond to the outbreak (and how worried we should be) in an evidence-based way. Though other questions may be prioritized as well, try to build a class consensus that these response-related questions make sense to investigate first. (5 minutes)

Ask students to consider in small groups how we might investigate our questions regarding the novel coronavirus, and particularly our questions about appropriate evidence-based responses. Have a few groups share their ideas with the whole class. Expected investigative ideas include research using reliable sources of information. (5 minutes)

Next, to continue to build student buy-in, ask the whole class if investigating the coronavirus more in science class will be helpful. After listening to student responses, consider saying, “there is a lot of information and in some cases misinformation out there about the coronavirus. Our classroom is a safe space where we can together evaluate that information and make sense of it so that we have a better understanding of what, according to scientists, we should know now. Also, by generating questions we have and considering ways to investigate those questions, we’re applying our practice as scientists to this problem and meeting the goals of our science class”. (3 minutes)

Note: At this point and throughout the lesson, stay attuned to students who may be uncomfortable or scared. Gather assessment evidence on this issue throughout the lesson and if necessary connect students to additional support (such as their own family and school counselors).

Part 2: Students Connect Science Ideas to the Novel Coronavirus (3-50 minutes)
Ask students if they suspect any connections between the coronavirus outbreak and science ideas that they have figured out in this science class or in previous science classes. Student responses will vary depending on the class context. Possible connections include disciplinary core ideas (especially in the life sciences and engineering design) and crosscutting concepts (for example cause and effect: mechanism and explanation; stability and change; and structure and function). See the table above for more information. (3-50 minutes)

Part 3: Shared Reading (19 minutes)
Ask students to individually consider what might be some reliable sources to gather more information about the novel coronavirus. Have students share their ideas, which might include medical professionals, government, newspapers, and/or health organizations like the CDC and the WTO. (3 minutes)

Tell students that you found an article from a major national newspaper (USA Today, February 1, 2020: “Coronavirus is scary, but the flu is deadlier, more widespread”) that refers to members of the science community and that you think will be of interest to our questions about the level of concern we should currently have. Ask students to individually read and annotate the article. As they read, students should complete a table that has them record connections to questions or ideas already raised in class, new ideas, and new questions (10 minutes)

Have students briefly discuss their connections, new ideas, and questions in small groups. (3 minutes) 

Listen for student takeaways such as that they are much more likely at this stage to contract the flu virus than the novel coronavirus, and that there are a surprisingly high number of flu-caused deaths in the US every year. 

Ask the whole class to reflect on what questions posed earlier were answered by this reading and what questions remain or new questions the class has. (3 minutes)

Listen to student responses that seek more information about the novel coronavirus or about influenza. 

Part 4: Jigsaw Texts (60 minutes)
Tell the whole class that in order to answer as many of their questions about the coronavirus (and now flu) as possible, students will participate in a jigsaw reading, where they will read one article in their small group, summarize the main ideas (and generate a list of connections, new ideas, and questions), and then share those ideas with a group of students who have read other texts. (2 minutes) 

Article 1: CDC: What the Public Should Do  
Article 2: CDC: nCov 2019 Transmission 
Article 3: CDC: nCov 2019 Prevention and Treatment
Article 4: WHO: Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation reports
Article 5: WHO: Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) advice for the public: Myth busters
Article 6: Chicago Department of Public Health: 2019-nCoV: Guidance for Students
Article 7: CDC: Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and You

Note that any of these articles could be exchanged with other articles from health agencies or news organizations or even informational videos such as this one from the WHO or this one from the CBC. You may also consider previewing each article and assigning the articles to students based on their typical reading-for-comprehension speed and the length of the article. Finally, you may not need to use all 7 articles. 

As students complete the reading individually, direct them to both annotate and complete the relevant section of the student handout. (13 minutes) 

Have students who read the same article briefly share their findings with one another in a small group and discuss the article. This will help students with preparing to briefly summarize their article in the mixed group (4 minutes)

Regroup students so that one representative from each article is in each group. Ask students to briefly summarize the purpose of their article in their new groups. Each summary should be brief- less than one minute. When sharing the summaries, students should make connections to what they have heard elsewhere, including in the other students’ summaries. Talk through anything that is unclear or seems inconsistent from one article to the next. Students should take notes during this sharing, listening, and discussion process. (14 minutes) 

Ask students to answer the following questions, either individually or in small groups. Were there any noticeable patterns or repetitions in the articles you and your classmates summarized? Why might this be? What questions that we posed earlier did these articles help us to answer? (5 minutes)

Discuss with the whole class what their main takeaways from the jigsaw reading were. Then, ask students what questions they feel like we’ve answered and what questions we’re still wondering about (or what new questions we have). (10 minutes) 

Listen for student responses that remark on the shared advice across organizations for prevention, the similarities of prevention measures between coronavirus and the flu, or the fact that the virus is not spreading widely in the United States. Where appropriate, clarify students’ thinking through follow up questions and other talk moves and facilitate students in clarifying each other’s thinking. Note that teachers may need to clarify transmission prevention practices important for personal and public health, but that teachers should first give students an opportunity to describe these to one another in the group discussion. 

Coach students in articulating questions that they have answered as a result of the readings, which may include questions around the appropriate response to the virus or the severity of the virus. Anticipate additional student questions around details of transmission, the origins of the virus, methods scientists use to study the viruses, personal health risk factors or other related topics. 

End this part by leading a class discussion about other ways besides obtaining and evaluating information that we could go about investigating the novel coronavirus. Display models and images of coronaviruses and ask students how using these models might be helpful for deepening our understanding and explanations. Students are likely to discuss the possibility of doing laboratory investigations with viruses in the school. Ask students to reflect on why this is impractical, but suggest that we could act as citizen scientists using publically available scientific data like the 2019 nCov DNA genome or the WHO nCov case data portal. Subsequent lessons could include students’ use of mathematics to analyze the spread of the virus or the student’s analysis of gene data using resources such as BLAST. Students could also develop general models for vaccination and explore what research into vaccine development entails.  (10 minutes)

Part 5: Shared Video (15-30 minutes)

Play the video from Al Jazeera English (beginning at 1:03) to the whole class. Ask students to individually jot down notes from the video in their notebooks or on the student handout. (5 minutes) 

Ask students to individually answer the following questions on their student handout. Have you ever felt unfairly targeted because of a group that you belong to? If so, how did it make you feel? If not, how do you imagine that would feel? Based on what you know about the novel coronavirus from this lesson, explain why prejudice against people with Chinese or Asian ancestry who live in countries outside of China has no scientific basis. (5 minutes) 

Lead a whole-class discussion (or, if you prefer, first have students discuss their answers in small groups). Ask students why the reporting from France is concerning. Ask students to explain why the fear of people based on their race or ethnicity with respect to the coronavirus is contrary to what we know about the coronavirus. (5 minutes) 

Part 6: Wrapup and Reflection (20 minutes)
In their small groups (or as a whole class) ask students to discuss the following prompts and capture the group’s thinking in their notes or on the student handout. What are some markers of reliable information when it comes to major events like the coronavirus? What makes this information reliable? What are some strategies we used to help make sense of the information available? What other tools (other than gathering and evaluating information ) might we use to further investigate our questions about the novel coronavirus? (20 minutes)

Additional Resources

Check out our learning center collection for free materials that you can use in our classroom right away.
Report from NBC on emergency declared https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8rkSG62OiQ
CBC Explainer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIL5m5XznNY
Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_Wuhan_coronavirus_outbreak
Flu worldwide CDC https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p1213-flu-death-estimate.html
Flu is deadlier https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/02/01/coronavirus-flu-deadlier-more-widespread-than-wuhan-china-virus/4632508002/
WHO video explainer: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Complete genome: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN908947
WHO Dashboard: http://who.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/c88e37cfc43b4ed3baf977d77e4a0667

Report from NBC on emergency declared https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8rkSG62OiQ
CBC Explainer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIL5m5XznNY
Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_Wuhan_coronavirus_outbreak
Flu worldwide CDC https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p1213-flu-death-estimate.html
Flu is deadlier https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/02/01/coronavirus-flu-deadlier-more-widespread-than-wuhan-china-virus/4632508002/
WHO video explainer: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Complete genome: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN908947
WHO Dashboard: http://who.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/c88e37cfc43b4ed3baf977d77e4a0667

In September of 2019, Education Commission of the States (ECS) brought together a group of experts in early childhood and/or STEM education to discuss policies and actions a state might implement to support STEM programming for preschool through third grade. The ensuing report from this meeting, Enhancing STEM in P-3 Education, focuses primarily on state and regional policy, but there are implications for STEM leadership more broadly, particularly at the school district level.

Societal trends and research-based understanding suggest a need for this report. Young children particularly benefit from an integrated approach to learning that centers on curiosity and play, which better aligns with their developmental needs. Whether it is a focus on play or academics, learning in pre-K programs often does not align well to K-3 programs due to communication challenges. Further, educators’ plates and program time burst at the seams. Where is there time for STEM? This report notes integration of disciplines around future-ready skills as the goal, rather than adding yet another thing. With stagnant achievement results across multiple measures, it is debatable whether current practices of putting more and more time into a couple of isolated academic areas makes sense.

Notably, research questions remain in the field of STEM education. This report draws on key research across child development and STEM, but as noted in the 2014 NRC report, STEM Integration in K-12 Education: Status, Prospects, and an Agenda for Research, further research needs to be done.

The findings of the report fall into four main categories: equity, equality, and access; state and regional coordination; educator preparation and professional learning; and, curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Clearly, not all students have equitable access to STEM programming in their early years. In some cases anything science- and STEM-related take a back seat to canned literacy and mathematics learning. Because early experiences help build identity and self-efficacy in STEM areas, unequal early access results in unequal later outcomes. When states or other groups offer STEM grants, they should consider support for early childhood programs and include equity in the criteria and action plan to incentivize this focus.

Leading effective STEM education efforts requires a coherent vision and definition of this work. A statewide definition for early STEM education supports a clear vision and strategic plan. Coordination between specific state and regional leadership bodies can make for a unified, consistent, and thus more effective effort.

Educator preparation programs, particularly for early childhood and preschool educators, do not typically include any learning around integrated STEM. Further, these programs do not always support career progressions for these educators; stackable credentials that allow for flexible career growth over time could increase the local talent pool. In an era of generic initiatives and packaged curricular products focusing on solitary subjects, professional learning for practicing educators also needs to emphasize support for integration.

Examples support this complex work. State-developed tools could provide local entities with detailed case studies of program development pathways, including bumps and successes. Local connections are also critical within STEM assessments and projects, where student and community relevance also enhances equity and cultural sustaining practice.

Suggestions from this report have district and school implications and include focusing on:

• Coherence, namely in language and with a PK-12 STEM strategic plan;
• STEM for all students, not only within pull-out programs, electives, or only after school
• Professional learning for transdisciplinary approaches from PK-12, emphasizing the authentic and local;
• Developmentally appropriate P-3 engagement, such as play, wonder, and exploration-based learning across disciplines; and,
• Stackable credentialing that allows for “grow-your-own” professional educators within a district.

Kevin Anderson is the science education consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Follow him on Twitter at @wisDPIscience. #stemforall 

I love science fair but is it still practical?
Rosa, TX

Science fair provides our students the opportunity to apply scientific processes to problems or questions that interest them. Students performing science is the greatest achievement for teachers of science education. With that understanding, science fairs are practical and relevant. The basis of science, in my opinion, is a way of thinking in which scientists seek answers to questions by taking inventory of the world that we live in and defining issues that concern our human existence. The methodical approach is to first define that issue or problem. Second, we conduct background reach to gain more knowledge of the issue. Based upon the background information, we can suggest a possible solution, or hypothesis, to be tested. The results of those tests can lead us to determine if the hypothesis was confirmed, refuted, or additional testing is needed. We can also discuss how to improve the testing process to increase the experiment’s validity. If students do not have opportunities like science fairs to use scientific practices, then we are not preparing a generation of science-conscious thinkers and problem-solvers. Just like students cannot grow dendrites by completing worksheets, you cannot help them develop into scientists if they sit at a desk all day following cookie-cutter activities with preset questions that fail to stimulate their creativity or inspire thoughts to make the world a better place.