We know that Covid-19 has caused a lot of stress and anxiety for educators, students, and families. Though SASSA is unable to run our programs as usual, we are determined to help in ways that we are able. One thing we can do is to help people stay connected.
Social distancing doesn’t mean we can’t be social and connect, it simply means we have to get more creative in how we do it. At the moment, some of our Preparing Researchers for Engaging the Public (PREP) participants are working with local teachers to develop video lectures and activities for the classrooms we normally serve this time of year through our SASSA in the Classroom program. But we thought, there might be others in the SASSA Community who may also want to break free of the new day-to-day at home by helping kids stay connected and inspired about learning!
So, what are we proposing? We are developing SASSA’s YouTube channel where we invite researchers in our Community to share a short video about their work. These would be very informal and casual videos (recorded with a phone is perfect) with language that would be understandable to an eighth-grade student. This will be a fun way to stay connected during isolation!
Some of our social studies teachers have requested research focusing on Europe (particularly Chernobyl), Africa, and the Australia-Wildfires. Special requests from science teachers include geology, stratigraphy, the Great Rift Valley, physics, and astronomy. Whatever your specialty, our students are interested in hearing from you. Whether you are an historian, social scientist, biologist, or chemist, they want to hear about your research and how it connects to the world. If you would like to participate, please read through our simple guidelines below for details.
Guidelines for Research Videos
- Short video (3 minutes or less)
- No pressure, self-recording on your phone is totally fine
- Introduce yourself – include your name, what you do, and area of research
- Keep the language easy – appealing to eighth-grade students
- Explain what your research is and its importance in the world
- Email the file or link to a downloadable file (e.g. via Google Drive or Dropbox) to Katherine Erdman (katherine@sassak12.org); she will review and upload videos to SASSA’s YouTube channel. If you have additional information you want to include with the video, such as links to other websites or research pages or additional information, please include that information in your email to Katherine.
- Have fun!
Please feel free to contact us with your questions, thoughts, and ideas. We will do what we can to help.
Thank you for supporting inquiring young minds in this challenging time!