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Write Ahead, Wellesley

In case of emergency, contact Wellesley HS Evolutions students

March 28, 2019 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Here’s the situation: there’s a disease outbreak, it’s spreading pandemic-fast, and every member of the community is at risk. How should federal and local governments, health agencies, and the public respond in order to minimize deaths and stop further geographic spread of germs?

I found out yesterday at the Wellesley High School Evolutions Program‘s case study presentations on infectious disease outbreaks and how communities respond to them. During the month-long project, students learned about how diseases are transmitted and  prevented. They also studied likely government responses in various major cities, how journalists might cover the issue (or be prevented from doing so), and the ethics of decision making.

The Wellesley High School Evolutions program is an interdisciplinary and collaborative program open to juniors and seniors in which teachers and students make connections across courses in Art, English, Science, and Social Studies. The idea of the interdisciplinary program is to offer students the opportunity to engage in project-based learning that is not confined to the typical bell schedule, reaching students who are excited by the possibility of exploring school in a new way and who want to have more ownership over their learning.

Evolutions Program Coordinator and English teacher Thom Henes invited some Wellesley High School teachers and other members of the community in to observe the presentations and ask questions. We were encouraged to be tough on the content, creativity, and viability of the students’ plans to keep everyone safe in the event of an outbreak. Some others who attended were Lenny Izzo, Director of Public Health, Wellesley Health Department; Ann Marie McCauley, Public Health Nurse Supervisor, Wellesley Health Department; Zach Nicol and Crystal Bartels, WHS Social Studies teachers; and Marc Bender and Lynne Novogroski, WHS administrators.

Group One was assigned Yellow Fever in Johannesburg, South Africa. All groups had to come up with effective ways to stop the spread of disease, but they had to follow one rule: students had to pretend that vaccines didn’t exist, thus depriving them of the easiest way to help the population. This group suggested widespread distribution of mosquito nets to cover beds and thus give the populace night time protection from disease-carrying mosquitoes. From left: Fiona Teich; Drew Gallerani; Cole Lesaght; Lance Greeger.
Group Two was assigned Yellow Fever in Mexico City. Evolutions teacher Thom Henes tasked students with understanding their disease’s outbreak; understanding its location; defining key problems that would arise; and developing prototypes of solutions. Group Two was concerned with Mexico’s Day of the Dead tradition of people partying in cemeteries, a place where they learned that mosquitoes also like to gather. From left: Liddy Schulz; Miles Olivetti; Kelly Rawson; Jonathan Hahn.
Wellesley High School, Evolutions
Group Three was assigned the Plague in Istanbul, Turkey. Each group presented for about ten minutes. Their presentation included a basic slideshow, prototypes of public service announcements or models of solutions, and public speaking. This group knew that the thousands of feral cats that roam Istanbul were a serious concern as potential carriers of Plague-infected fleas. Their public service rap song acknowledged the cats’ cultural place in society by assuring, “We still love ’em, so they’re not neglected.” Left to right: Jayden Lumier; Tahj Cogell-Brown; AJ Masiello; Charlie Berger.
Wellesley High School, Evolutions
Group 4 was assigned Pandemic Flu in Algiers, Algeria. The challenge there: the flu virus is spread by person-to-person contact, and 98% of the population comes together five times per day to pray in mosques. The group hoped that broadcasting prayers over government-sponsored radio would encourage people to stay and pray at home until the pandemic was under control. Left to right: Stephen Aparicio; Owen Conroy; Pat Ryan; Will Ryan
Wellesley High School, Evolutions
Group 5 was assigned Pandemic Flu in Bangkok, Thailand. Their research reflected that the citizenry spends ten hours per day on the internet. Given that rate of screen time, the group suggested spreading the word on Facebook about keeping safe during the outbreak. They also had an excellent scarf prototype that would allow people to cover their faces stylishly when they had to go out. Left to right: Kay Vandervoort; Tate Blasco; Teddy Komjathy; Matt Darwin
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Filed Under: Education, Government, Health, Safety

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