Fighting COVID by Teaching in the Open

SINCE IRELAND APPEARS to be on the path of increasing incidences of COVID, I'm planning interventions that take students outside or following steps to open exterior doors even as the temperatures drop. The science supports my interventions.

A peer-reviewed study in Belgium conducted from September 21 to December 31, 2020, in a primary school in Liège, Belgium, among a volunteer sample of 181 children, parents, and school employees showed children may play a larger role in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 than previously assumed. I work with third level students who share one trait with primary school children in that they're also often asymptomatic.

"Despite the implementation of several mitigation measures, the incidence of COVID-19 among children attending primary school in this study was comparable to that observed among teachers and parents. Transmission tree reconstruction suggests that most transmission events originated from within the school. Additional measures should be considered to reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at school, including intensified testing."

We bought a test kit and plan to purchase a new supply of masks every week.

I'm producing a set of flash cards to display behind me through a projector that emphasizes main points during lectures and tutorial sessions. Key terms in large fonts help people better understand me when I deliver teaching material behind my mask.

I avoid standing next to parents or their kids when on school runs. That means I park and wait like the other parents in the shot below.

Download COVID in Schools Study

Download Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 After COVID-19 Primary School Belgium.pdf (60.7K)

[Bernie Goldbach teaches creative media for business on the Clonmel Digital Campus of the Technological University of the Shannon. The image at the top was snapped during a class discussion of characters developed by animators who reviewed Sally Rooney's Beautiful World.]