Since early cases of coronavirus were recorded and published at the beginning of 2020 in the US, many schools have been shut down to reduce the risk of exposure to the virus for students at public schools.
During the COVID pandemic, STEM World canceled many in-person programs to comply with the LA county’s safety guidelines. In the following weeks of June 2020, our school principals and teachers from the Pasadena School District came up with new scheduling plans and curriculums for the online courses. There are several reasons that make meeting the requirements extremely challenging: tight timeline, and by nature, most PBL (project-based learning) STEM classes are centralized around hands-on activities. So, how did we overturn these challenges and make the new STEM online classes safe and fun to participate in? In this post, I will share some of the most engaging online STEM activities I taught to the kids here at the STEM World.
At first, I proposed a few classes with different curriculum themes to STEM World. They are Biomimicry, data science, and biochemistry-focused immunology. The class of immunology got the most sign-up responses from the parents. The objective of the class is to educate kids in the K12 segment to develop a greater understanding of our human immune system in relation to the symbiosis of viruses and bacteria that live among us.
I broke down the learning into four stages. Each stage is an hour and a half which concomitant with various hands-on activities and computer programming assignments.
I. Intro to the lymphatic(immune) system,
Ii. Shapes of bacteria and virus
Iii. Mood enhancer: serotonin
Iv. The new era of medicine: bacteriophage
In the first session, we focused on the components that make up the lymphatic system of the human body. Here are a few examples of the students’ work from the first session of the class.
As we transition to the next learning stage, students get to learn types of blood cells that serve as protective agents in our human body. They also learned to put their learning in motion by using an animation tool called Powtoon.
In the next learning stage, Mood enhancer. Students learned how our moods like stress and depression can affect our body and mental health. And how other hormones like serotonin and endorphins can boost the mood and improve our immunity. By the end of the class, students use the basic storyboarding and keyframe technique to animate their story.
In the last session, students focused on bacteriophage. I demonstrated how to use paper to fold origami to represent the icosahedron head of this fascinating virus. And students have to figure out their own way to let it stand freely with some sticks they can find at home.
We offer the immunology class throughout the year of 2020. And I continually revise and bringing in new class materials after each iteration. If you would like to learn more or sign up this class. Please visit our school’s website at: http://www.stemworld.net
