Focusing on Scientific Data to Alleviate Student Fears
During the 2019–20 school year, Mr. Reeves taught 9th grade physical science and 11th–12th grades International Baccalaureate biology at a small rural high school in Delaware. Because the topic of viruses was aligned with his standards, he taught COVID-related content in each of his classes. In his words:
In the biology course, we were actually studying cells, so it gave me an opportunity to emphasize why science doesn’t regard a virus as a true living entity. And then we got into quite a bit of detail about how viruses work and how they use the cellular apparatus of another organism in order to replicate themselves. . . . With the 11th and 12th graders, I did a little bit more in-depth look at what the COVID virus looked like, what you would typically see. What we still see is the graphic that we see on the news about COVID, so I took that model and had them try to understand what the parts of that model represented. And understanding viruses and as just really little mechanisms for using your cells to make more copies of themselves. Because that was what we were actually studying, was the replication of DNA and translation using RNA to translate the code in the DNA.
However, many of Mr. Reeve’s students lived or worked in settings where COVID transmission was particularly concerning:
It was early, even before we closed, that the information started to come to light that this was a very communicable disease. There was immediately concern among people who worked in situations where they were in close proximity to other people, as well as people who lived in situations with close proximity to other people. And a lot of my students live in very densely populated places and in multi-generational homes.
In efforts to alleviate student fears, Mr. Reeves devoted a substantial portion of class time to answering their questions, with an emphasis on the importance of accessing accurate and reliable scientific information. As he said:
I mostly answered questions, and tried to help them understand the science. I tried to give kids opportunities to ask questions and also shared with them places where they could find information and answers. Most of the questions were based on if I was afraid of the virus, and I tried to share that, you know, as a scientist, I don’t allow fear to drive my life. I try to really access good information because fear doesn’t really serve us very well. So I did those kinds of lessons and tried to gear them towards the questions that the students had because if you’re answering their questions, then there’s going to be some learning going on.
Mr. Reeves also provided students with opportunities to access and interact with COVID-related data. In his words:
So I accessed the COVID data on the State of Delaware website and showed them how to access it as well, with the idea that we might part ways. Again, trying to empower them with information. For them to learn how to access information and interpret information clearly is a part of what I do. And so I used COVID data to push that part of my teaching a little bit more than I would have pre-COVID.
After their school building closed, Mr. Reeves continued to address COVID in his online instruction in response to student questions:
It became obvious to us from their questions that they had very, very little understanding and were very fearful. So I did one lesson that was pretty involved with building understanding between bacteria, which are living things, but also microbes and viruses, which are non-living and at the root of this pandemic. And it was pretty successful. It was probably about a week of interrelated lessons.
However, he recalled the delicate balance between providing information that would increase student knowledge without contributing to their anxiety. In his words:
It was a fine line. What I didn’t want to do was scare my students and make them—you know, I really consciously tried not to stress them out. I didn’t want them to be more fearful. And of course, some of these kids were getting COVID, and some of their parents were getting COVID, and some of their grandparents were dying from COVID, and it was stressful. So I really tried to strike a good balance. . . . And then what I asked them to do, which was more like looking at data and trying to build some understanding of how to look at data and interpret it. . . . I went online and found good data, good representations of data, and even some animations of how data was changing over time, that kind of thing. Again, to make it responsive to some of the questions that I was getting from them, like, “Why can’t we come back to school?” and “When’s this ever going to end?”
Despite the challenges, Mr. Reeves reflected on the important role he and other teachers could play in disseminating accurate scientific information related to COVID within their schools and communities:
And I think that educators like myself could have promoted good understanding, clear understanding, and it would spread like the virus spreads. It would spread from person to person within communities. And high school-aged students can play a role in helping their parents understand the science, because they’re a little younger. They’re little adults. They’re smart. They’re very, very bright. And they’re very, very capable.