My triplets had coronavirus anxiety — so I taught them how to do science
Although the study would be small, rushed and nowhere near the quality threshold for peer review, I saw it as an opportunity to teach my children about the scientific method, and to address their coronavirus anxiety head-on. We devised an experiment in which people would hear messages from four sources about preventing the spread of COVID-19. We decided that the sources would be a group of health-care workers, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, social media and a fictitious politician. For an educator such as myself, explaining the experimental set-up to seven-year-olds after years of teaching undergraduates was an eye-opening experience.
Turning my kids’ anxiety into curiosity was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had as a scientist.
See the full story here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01868-7