Engineering in a Pandemic

Student submission from Thompson Elementary School, Houston TX
When the COVID 19 virus spread across the world, schools shut down and teachers had to find new ways to keep students learning.
The Phillips 66 Afterschool Clubs were unable to finish their spring semester work. While some teachers managed to continue, the lack of materials for students to use at home posed a problem. Baylor College of Medicine’s COVID 19 Challenges enabled students to engage in fun STEM activities with materials readily available at home. Two challenges were designed for teachers to use in virtual classroom platforms: For the “COVID19 Face Covering Challenge,” students design a face covering. The “Social Distancing Challenge” called on students to use non-standard units of measurements to demonstrate how far six feet really is between people.
The challenges proved highly successful, and students learned more about safe practices during the pandemic as a result. Students with the top designs won a BCM Pangolin T-shirt and have their work showcased here on BioEd Online!