Dear Science Students,
What a strange time this is. I feel glad that you, at least, have some basis for understanding the slew of information coming at you.
But I am sure it's still overwhelming; I know I feel a bit overwhelmed, and worried for my friends and relatives who are at risk because of their age, health status, or because they work in hospitals. I hope that all of your people are OK.
So, during this time of while the Center is closed, rather than just switch to online classes for all of us, I would like to check in with each of you, creating an individual learning plan that you will work on and I will support you with. Depending on your internet access, this will be some combination of:
We can tailor this to what topics YOU would like to pursue at this time. For example, do you want to learn as much as you can about anything related to the current pandemic? That could include the human immune system, the human respiratory system, group immunity, public health measures, viruses, vaccines, mortality vs. infection rates (how are Ebola and COVID-19 similar and different?) ...
Or, would you like a break from all this, and you want to explore... Virtual knee or hip surgery? Simple and Compound Machines? The physics of car crashes? Weather and Climate? Something else... what interests you right now?
Please write to me. All the best,
Lakshmi Nayak
What a strange time this is. I feel glad that you, at least, have some basis for understanding the slew of information coming at you.
- You understand how viruses work, and how they are different from bacteria.
- You know why proper hand-washing is the most effective method -- you don't need to stockpile hand sanitizer--though you also know that's the next best thing to proper hand-washing.
- You ask good questions in class--and by good, I mean questions that get the rest of us to think, to want to find answers to.
- And to find those answers, you've had some practice with figuring out reliable vs. unreliable sources of information on the internet and in the news, and you have some practice in reading scientific information and interpreting graphs and charts.
But I am sure it's still overwhelming; I know I feel a bit overwhelmed, and worried for my friends and relatives who are at risk because of their age, health status, or because they work in hospitals. I hope that all of your people are OK.
So, during this time of while the Center is closed, rather than just switch to online classes for all of us, I would like to check in with each of you, creating an individual learning plan that you will work on and I will support you with. Depending on your internet access, this will be some combination of:
- accessing the resources I will continue to put on the class website (videos, articles, vocab practice, virtual science labs, ...)
- working in the science prep workbook that you have at home, checking in with me on what you have learned, which questions and topics were tricky, and what questions you have
- reading/watching/listening to the science news and keeping a log of your thoughts, reactions, and questions
- possibly trying out some home experiments (I can give you ideas if you're interested)
We can tailor this to what topics YOU would like to pursue at this time. For example, do you want to learn as much as you can about anything related to the current pandemic? That could include the human immune system, the human respiratory system, group immunity, public health measures, viruses, vaccines, mortality vs. infection rates (how are Ebola and COVID-19 similar and different?) ...
Or, would you like a break from all this, and you want to explore... Virtual knee or hip surgery? Simple and Compound Machines? The physics of car crashes? Weather and Climate? Something else... what interests you right now?
Please write to me. All the best,
Lakshmi Nayak