Dr. David Childs, D.D., Ph.D.
Northern Kentucky University
With so much misinformation online and in the media about COVID-19 it can be challenging to know what information is accurate and useful. Teachers can combat this by educating students and the public about the pandemic. Indeed educators can offer reliable information about the coronavirus. For example, they can teach students the science behind the virus, the effectiveness of vaccines and social distancing, and the usefulness of wearing masks. Classroom teachers can combat the conspiracy theories and false information that has inundated social media and the Internet.
(Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock)
There are some online resources and lesson plans that can help teachers provide reliable information about COVID-19. An effective way to stop the spread of the virus is to win the information war, and eradicate the false information that is widespread about the pandemic. K-12 classrooms can be the optimal environment to do this. Check out the creative lesson plans and resources below that can assist in this effort. 
The success of Hong Kong and Singapore in stemming the spread of the coronavirus holds many lessons for how to contain it in the United States.Photograph by Tsuji Keith / Abaca / ZUMA
BrainPOP Coronavirus Lesson Plans
The BrainPOP Coronavirus Lesson Plan is designed for grades 3-8. In describing the lesson and details of the material the website states:
“This lesson plan accompanies the BrainPOP topic, Coronavirus, and can be completed over several class periods. In this lesson students will:
- Activate prior knowledge about viruses, and specifically about the coronavirus.
- Use critical thinking skills to identify and connect facts about the coronavirus.
- Demonstrate understanding through creative projects, such as producing a public service announcement and coding an interview with a doctor.
- Present projects and reflect on new understandings.”
Other Resources and Lesson Plans on COVID-19
American Federation of Teacher- Lesson Plan
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences- Lesson Plan
National Geographic Learning Teaching Materials on COVID-19
Teach Your Students about Covid-19 with Lifeliqe Lessons
Florida Literacy Classroom Lesson – Coronovirus (COVID-19)
Lysol- Prevent the Spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Lesson Plan
Crisis Collaboration: COVID-19 Mini Lesson
Free Coronavirus Science Lesson Plans
NEA News- How Teachers Are Integrating COVID-19 Crisis Into Their Lessons
I believe that this would have been an extremely helpful article to have at the beginning of covid when trying to explain what exactly is happening in the world. Now I say at the beginning because if we tried teaching about covid now, people would just be so bored and be so uninterested cause they have already heard about it.
I agree that teachers could really combat the conspiracies and false information that surround the coronavirus pandemic. K-12 students, for the most part, live on social media. Especially 8-12 students. By having someone that they trust, to explain the science behind the virus and the science behind the vaccination, this could help in our fight against the virus mutating further. These students are our future and we need to make sure that they are not misinformed by social media and opinions of others.
I think with the continuation of covid-19 in the world today this article will be beneficial to teachers because it gives resources that they can use to help students understand what covid-19 is and why we have to wear masks to school every day. Although this pandemic has been going on for a while most children probably just know that they are wearing masks for the sake of the virus while not understanding what the virus is or how the masks protect us, so this article gives teachers a way to help students gain insight to information that they probably didn’t previously know about. This is a great way to give reliable information about the virus and keep students informed about the facts regarding the virus since it’s an event in history that is happening right now.
this article talked about all of the misinformation on covid-19 which is important because we as a collective need to be able to navigate what is and isnt true. this article would definitely benefit a class room by educating the youth on how to filter misinformation.
While I agree you can teach the science behind COVID-19 to children, it is just so hard for them to understand what is going on. I have a five-year old at home and he has kind of adapted to the new “norms” COVID-19 has forced us to be okay with. However, we have friends who have a 9-year-old who has a really hard time with it. Because it has been instilled in these kids that the virus spreads quickly, to always wash their hands, social distance etc., he has been doing all of this in excessive amounts and lives everyday in fear that he is going to die from COVID-19. I think that there is a fine line between educating students about the virus and how it affects us because some students are more sensitive than other.
After reading this article I was very impressed by the better depth I had on this topic. The importance of teaching about the Coronavirus in the classroom, the real facts. Social Media can have a huge effect on the way we think about things and or false information. The BrainPOP Coronavirus Lesson plans are a great tool to use in my future classroom. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas about this certain topic.
Working in a elementary school, you cannot possibly get through to everyone. I mean you can’t expect, at the oldest, a 10 year old to be perfect with wearing their mask or maintaining 6 feet.
Especially with me in the FMD room today, you cannot want such high expectations with children to learn things they don’t want to learn about or do things they do not want to do.
I can understand teaching the facts about the virus to middle schoolers and high schoolers but elementary school kids just don’t understand what exactly is happening.
I believe that it is important to educate the youth in the classroom about COVID if you’re providing factual information about the virus. I believe that students should learn as much as they can about the virus to make sure they’re keeping themselves healthy.
I believe this article would have been more helpful towards the start of covid. I also think that many people in the classroom would get bored really fast having to learn about this because it is all we have dealt with and heard on the news for almost two years.
This article was so helpful. I will definitely be using some of the resources at the bottom of the article in my future classroom. I liked how the article stated that there is so much misinformation out there about COVID-19 because it is true. We as educators and future educators need to teach the truth to our students to help them fully understand what is happening in the world.