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Free COVID-19 & Health Equity Units for 3-5 and High School Educators


Today, we're excited to share our latest FREE instructional materials, COVID-19 & Health Equity units for 3-5 and High School science educators. Our K-2 unit will be released on September 30th and we will share that with you too!  

As community members, we hope that you will consider sharing these new units with colleagues and friends who lead or teach at the 3-5 and High School level. Some information for you...

Grades 3-5 Unit: "How can we make decisions to care for ourselves, our families, and our communities?" 

These ready-to-use materials were developed in partnership with NextGen Science Storylines (at Northwestern University), Learning in Places (at Northwestern University and University of Washington), and current classroom teachers from across the country. These multidisciplinary units include social-emotional learning and supports for teachers and families in addressing these emotional and essential topics. Materials include 12-14 days of instruction (assuming forty minutes of instruction/day). The materials will guide students and families through the following questions:

  • How have our lives changed because of COVID-19? 
  • Why have those changes happened? 
  • How can we care for ourselves, our families, and our communities?
Join the members from OpenSciEd, NextGen Science Storylines, and Learning in Places for a webinar on September 22nd that will introduce and provide an overview of the unit. Register for this free event through our website.
Download the Unit

High School Unit: How can we slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus to protect our communities?

This 3-week unit focuses on the science of COVID-19, its transmission, and strategies for controlling it. Students will learn how different factors are determining the ways COVID-19 is affecting different communities across the U.S. OpenSciEd developed these units in partnership with BSCS Science Learning and current classroom teachers from across the country. Epidemiologists, public health experts, educational equity experts, community groups, as well as social-emotional learning experts contributed to the material development. 

In the unit, students will: 

  • Investigate how geographic and demographic factors influence the spread and severity of COVID-19. 
  • Determine how COVID-19 spreads within and between communities.
  • Use computer simulations to investigate strategies that can reduce spread in principle.
  • Investigate how mitigation strategies worked in the real world.
  • Discuss how pandemics end, what needs to happen for the COVID-19 pandemic to end, and how to prepare for the next one.
Join the members from the OpenSciEd and BSCS Learning for a webinar on September 30th that will introduce and provide an overview of the unit. Register for this free event through our website.
Download the Unit

Please note, because of the importance and time-sensitive nature of these units' subject, the developers have decided to make this version of the unit available to educators while we are reviewing, field testing, and revising it. The developers will be conducting a field test and obtaining reviews in the fall of 2020 and editing the materials for official release in March 2021. 

In learning,

The OpenSciEd team, in partnership with BSCS Learning, NextGen Science Storylines, and Learning in Places
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