Creating a problem based learning experience for high-achieving high schoolers
The Project: Design a lesson that familiarizes high school students with public health emergency preparedness and response.
The Learners: About 25 students in an Honors Medical Interventions class.
My Role: Design learning experience and material in collaboration with subject matter experts.
Tools used: Powerpoint, Google Suite
Project in 5 words or less: Wish I was a student!
The students analyzed a popular outbreak-related film, participated in an in-person lecture with a leading expert in biohazard threat reduction, interviewed experts from across the country, and role-played in response to a preparedness scenario engineered by their peers.
Throughout the 3-month experience students identified the roles and responsibilities of key players in a coordinated, multijurisdictional outbreak response. They displayed their understanding of those concepts by fulfilling player roles in a student-designed preparedness table-top exercise (aka, a TTX). Allowing the students to design their own preparedness exercise was a natural way to immerse them in the drama of a widespread infectious disease outbreak (… a natural, pre-COVID way, at least).
Students learned more about the roles and responsibilities of key players (e.g., first responders, the media, federal and state government entities) by interviewing real-world subject matter experts from local and federal government organizations and the community. They used the information they gathered to respond realistically to workshop contingencies.