Coronavirus Education

With various media outlets reporting on the current coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), it is important that students who may be exposed to this onslaught of information understand the facts.  Educating younger children about the virus may be as simple as reminding them how to wash their hands, and other common methods that can help prevent the spread of many diseases.  Older children may benefit from more specific information, and this can also be seen as an opportunity for broader learning as they compare/contrast pandemics throughout history, analyze mathematical models, and develop their own ideas about how to avoid further outbreaks.  I’ve curated some resources below that might be useful in the classroom setting.  As always, please review materials before using with your class to determine their appropriateness for your particular audience.

• ncov2019.live pulls live data from several sites to keep people updated (created by a high school student in Washington state)
• Just for Kids: A Comic Exploring the New Coronavirus from NPR
• Understanding the Outbreak of a Virus from TED Ed compiles several TED Ed videos for you, including, “How Pandemics Spread”
• Coronavirus from BrainPop is currently available for free, and includes lesson ideas for grades 3-8
• How China is Responding to Breakneck Spread of  Novel Coronavirus from PBS News Hour includes discussion questions and extensions
• COVID-19 map, linked from the PBS News Hour site gives up-to-date information about the number of reported cases around the world
• Coronavirus Questions and Answers from the World Health Organization is a short video that answers many of the most common concerns people have about the disease
• Coronavirus Lesson Plans and Resources are available from Share My Lesson (account required in order to download)
• What Actually Happens if You Get the Coronavirus? is a very informative video that I found on Larry Ferlazzo’s extensive collection of coronovirus resources
• What’s Going on in this Graph? from the New York Times asks you to compare the coronavirus to other infectious diseases.  (This graph is part of a monthly series that I blogged about here.)
• To Tame Coronavirus, Mao-Style Social Control Blankets China, also from the New York Times, is one of their Lessons of the Day