We are pleased to present a special issue of The Biophysicist on Teaching and Learning during COVID-19. The issue includes both Research Articles and shorter, informal Reports with papers on how formal learning and labs were taught remotely, as well as the even more difficult problem of how student research experiences were modified during this very challenging time. Other articles are related to the pedagogical aspects of the science behind COVID-19 that deal with aerosols and infection models. Finally, a Student Forum report describes the home-based experiments done by middle-school students who were learning remotely. We hope that
Biophysics is defined by the experimental data that are collected on an extensive array of powerful and elegant tools. To solve important problems in biophysics, an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the current instrumental methods is needed. Although lecture-based courses can instruct students on the physical principles of biophysical instrumentation, the actual practical use of instrumentation can seem far from the concepts taught through presentations or books. Traditionally, laboratory courses can expose students to hands-on use and understanding of experimental methods. During the COVID-19 pandemic, laboratory-based courses were challenging or, at times, prohibited. The educational aim of this article is to connect the instrumental concepts learned in lecture to the use of instruments for experiments when students are unable to go into laboratory environments. I present a low-stakes assignment for students to explore the biophysical instrumentation at core facilities. Prompts were provided to guide students through methods and challenges when using an instrument in a laboratory. These were then shared in a group environment so students could learn about multiple instruments in a single class and further benefit from social interactions with their peers, combating isolation during remote courses. Beyond remote instruction during COVID-19, this assignment can be applicable to future courses where laboratory work is cost-, time-, or location-prohibitive. Adaptations for in-person instruction are also discussed.ABSTRACT
In this report, we discuss the experience of both lecturing and teaching laboratory classes during a pandemic at the University of Mississippi (UM). UM is a relatively rural university with approximately 20 000 students. The instructional approaches that we attempted would be significantly more difficult to implement at universities with larger class sizes, geographically more restricted with regard to climate, or more urban with confined space, yet we observed many failures, even at a rural, spacious campus. Here, we note the various models of instruction that—in our case—could be separated into three approaches: in-person (i.e., traditional face-to-face instruction), online only, and
From online lectures to virtual lab assignments to Zoom breakout rooms, COVID-19 has changed the way students are learning around the world. The goal of the BASICS: Lesson Plan on Aerosols & Infection is to help students understand the biophysics underlying aerosols to explain why the SARS-CoV-2 virus has taken over our lives. The Lesson Plan explains how aerosols travel through air and demonstrates how masks can effectively prevent aerosol transmission and, by extension, viral infection. In this Report, we discuss how we developed this Lesson Plan and what students can learn about infectious virus spread inIntroduction
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced most university teaching into an online mode in spring 2020, online teaching and, specifically, lecture recording were not implemented by default in physics and biophysics education in German universities. Therefore, the teaching terms of the summer semester (April–July 2020, completely online) and of the winter semester (November 2020–February 2021, “hybrid” until December, then fully online) were of a somewhat experimental nature. However, by evaluating the students' perception of the shift to online learning, some adaptations could be implemented in the winter semester. In this report, we reflect on this shift and the subsequent adaptations. We
During the spring of 2020, labs around the world suddenly closed to help slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Among the many effects on science and education, the lab closures resulted in undergraduates losing the opportunity to work on research projects during that spring and summer and throughout the 2020–2021 academic year. Participating directly in a research project is important for undergraduate students to gain research experience and with it the mentoring and training needed to prepare them for graduate school or professional school and a future career in science.
Demand for undergraduate research experiences typically outstrips the available laboratory positions, which could have been exacerbated during the remote work conditions imposed by the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic. This report presents a collection of examples of how undergraduates have been engaged in research under pandemic work restrictions. Examples include a range of projects related to fluid dynamics, cancer biology, nanomedicine, circadian clocks, metabolic disease, catalysis, and environmental remediation. Adaptations were made that included partnerships between remote and in-person research students and students taking on more data analysis and literature surveys, as well as data mining, computational, and informatics projects. In many cases,
Converting in-person courses to an online and asynchronous format requires significant updates to instructional materials. In this report, we share how we adapted a two-semester, undergraduate biochemistry laboratory sequence to this modality, while simultaneously engaging students in the science of COVID-19. We modified the advanced course mid-semester and planned changes to the introductory course in advance. Pedagogical choices made in the advanced course leveraged pre-existing materials, which supported new learning objectives focused on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In contrast, changes to the introductory course relied heavily on new materials, which preserved the original course learning objectives andIntroduction
Shira Passentin is a MSc student in the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She also is a teacher of science and technology in a middle school (junior high school) in Israel. In this article, she describes a simple biophysical activity, performed by her students at home during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdowns, which explicates the meaning and importance of surface area in a biologic context.