GENES AND MICROBES: NGSS-ALIGNED CURRICULA FOR SECONDARY SCIENCE

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As COVID-19 vaccines become more widely available, vaccine hesitancy is rapidly becoming one of the major barriers to achieving herd immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the US population. Lack of accurate scientific information is one of the multiple factors contributing to this hesitancy. To address this need, the Genetic Science Learning Center (GSLC) at the University of Utah will utilize its award-winning expertise in developing effective, multimedia-rich curriculum materials to produce three lessons for grade 9 and 10 high school biology students. The lessons will build on and extend a curriculum unit that the GSLC produced for the SEPA-funded Genes and Microbes: Engaging Students and Teachers in NGSS-Aligned Curricula and Professional Development project. The goals for this supplement are to: GOAL 1: Educate secondary-level students about the impacts of genes and microbes on health and disease so they can contribute to choices related to their health in an informed way. Approach: Develop three NGSS-aligned lessons on mRNA vaccines for grade 9-10 high school biology students. The lessons will build on content in the Exploring Genetics Through Genetic Disorders unit, that the GSLC developed and tested for the parent project. After learning how mRNA vaccines work, students will explore factors that can influence an individual’s vaccine confidence level. Finally, they will develop and deploy social media campaigns designed to educate the adults who care for them, peers and/or members of their community on mRNA vaccines and increase vaccine confidence. We will conduct a within-subjects, mixed methods research study to evaluate the efficacy and impact of the supplemental lessons, using validated instruments. GOAL 2: Prepare teachers to use the lessons through an online professional development course and at least two workshops. Approach: The new lessons will be included in an online course that is taught annually for teachers and will be presented in a workshop at a national science teacher conference and in at least one virtual workshop. To further disseminate the new lessons, we will promote them to our email list of >20,000 educators worldwide and via our Twitter account, and publish a paper in a high school science teacher journal. The new lessons will be freely available on our Learn.Genetics and Teach.Genetics websites which annually receive >14 million visits and >40 million page views, coming from virtually every country in the world. Thus, the new lessons will be broadly disseminated, increasing their reach and use. The project will take full advantage of the GSLC’s synergistic expertise in curriculum development and instructional design, teacher professional development, and research and evaluation. It will build on our 26 years of experience in producing highly effective educational materials for students and the public, and in holding effective teacher professional development programs.