Do You SEE Seattle?
Do you SEE Seattle?
(... and what else do you see?)
For the last three years, I’ve been preparing for a paper for an international conference involving my 5th grade students, a program called Anatomy Academy, and all of it during a time when we were all being taught over a platform called ZOOM during a worldwide pandemic.
Anatomy Academy is an outreach and research program to combat childhood obesity through education.
Students, Pre-Clinical Med Students (Mentors) taught in-person and over Zoom.
Dissecting brains, the final lesson was conducted in a Hybrid setting (Upper Left)
Here, upper G.I. materials were pre-prepared and delivered to the Salt Lake Arts Academy where students picked up supplies and conducted their guided experiments with their Mentors over Zoom at home. (I love his expression.)
“How do I show that my students really DID learn?”
“We asked them!”
We brought in pre-clinical med students together from 4 different time zones across the country over a weekly session for 6 weeks to teach them pre-designed lesson plans about the insides of our body.
Over Zoom?
(Are you sure the 5th graders weren’t just gaming on the side?)
So WHAT did we do?
Well …
Since this has never happened before, (pandemic) and we have never presented the material over Zoom before (everyone was learning and teaching from home), we decided to test the theory that learning could still occur.
(The abstract is a quick read.)
Collaborating with Dr. Jonathan Wisco, PhD Associate Professor, Anatomy and Neurobiology from Boston University
SHAPE conference in Seattle, Washington
In the end, what we learned was that, indeed, students were influenced through education EVEN IF it was not delivered in person.
It was an exciting time and I’m honored to have had the opportunities to work with Dr. Wisco since 2011; his kindness and generosity, time and patience have assisted our school and students in ways that they may not fully understand until later in life.
We asked conference participants to participate in one of the experiments we conducted with our 5th graders: The Beverage Experiment! (How much sodium and sugar are in our favorite beverage?)
It is fascinating to witness how different places and organizations responded to the pandemic.
We did the best we could with what we knew at the time.
Witnessing the response holds different timelines; some people bounced back and some people are still recovering …
Seattle is a dream come true for those who love the outdoors.
Seattle has an enthusiastic sports culture.
Seattle is a coffee empire.
Seattle has mild, comfortable weather.
Seattle is an educated, well-read city.
While awaiting the arrival of our conference presentation, my husband and I decided to take advantage of exploring Seattle. It was 2015 when we were last here and SO much has occurred between then and now.
The pandemic hit Seattle HARD!
First confirmed COVID-19 case was a man from Washington State on January 21, 2020.
Everything in Seattle is big these days, especially our collective problems: homelessness, gentrification, climate change, the state of the police, the fate of downtown, systemic racism, a pandemic that refuses to go away.
https://crosscut.com/opinion/2021/08/solve-seattles-biggest-problems-city-needs-think-small
It’s still recovering and evidence of its vacancy is seen everywhere.
(blocks and blocks of vacated store fronts)
But does that mean it should give up?
How do you save a City that You LOVE?
During tours, we received a personalized explanation of where Seattle was THEN, WHAT it has endured and WHERE it is now.
(But the unsightly viaduct has been torn down and a new green space and aquarium extension are underway. It’s going to be beautiful!)
“Seattle is a wet place. The rainy season begins in the middle of September and ends sometime in late August.”
The OLD and the NEW!
Maybe we heal a city by continuing to love it, even through problems and change, just like life. Even through a pandemic, we can learn.
