Pandemic Pod featured in ABC News - Philly
The Pandemic Pod Experiment
With COVID-19 and most schools going virtual, this presents a challenging time for our youth to learn and excel. 2 Sides Equal set out to explore and test an alternative way to support learning for elementary children being educated via virtual methods.
Virtual learning means that children are at home and parents are having to juggle work and support core teaching efforts. This will inevitably result in kids falling behind in just the core curriculum for their grade as days will be cut short and teachers won't be able to have the in person evaluation of the student to help support them effectively.
2 Sides Equal provided a grant for teacher Beth Saverio from Ambler, PA to support supplemental tutoring, coordination with the children's assigned teachers, and a defined routine for the day. Mrs. Saverio coordinated an environmental infrastructure for offsite learning and provided supplement assigned learning with other creative problem solving efforts (i.e., robotics, coding, issues around the world, scavenger hunts, etc.).
Held at the location of 2nd Spark Consulting, LLC - a healthcare marketing firm, Mrs. Saverio’s efforts supported the children of the employees during this busy unprecedented time.
Pottery Art Class
During virtual learning, art classes brought out the worst in the students. After a few weeks, it became apparent that the frustration was due to the students only seeing the teacher’s perfect artwork via zoom.
To bring the love of art back into the pod, Beth Saverio provided pottery classes over the course of the semester as supplemental art classes. It allowed for the students to see their peers’ work and other inspiration around the room.
Scavenger Hunts
Mrs. Saverio saw an absence of “teamwork” during virtual learning. Because she knows of great outcomes involving collaboration, she facilitated scavenger hunts around Ambler, PA to encourage the students to work together. Older children were paired with younger children to aid in reading.
Field Trips
Students needed to get out of staring at a computer screen all day. Mrs. Saverio arranged local trips to give the students an edge outside of their core curriculum.
