This summer, the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator (GHELI) hosted a full-day meeting to launch the Outbreak Science project, a joint initiative between GHELI, the Center for Health Decision Science (CHDS), and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard focused on high school education in the science of emerging infections, epidemics, and pandemics. The meeting resulted from over a year of planning and preparation and was attended by faculty, students, and project collaborators.
The collaboration “spark” began two years ago when Professor Pardis Sabeti of the Broad Institute approached GHELI and CHDS Faculty Director Sue J. Goldie about the Broad Institute’s active learning simulation platform that teaches students how pathogens spread and the impact of interventions. With a team of collaborators from multiple institutions, Sabeti and Goldie developed a proposal for a DoD STEM award with a vision and roadmap for a curriculum for high school educators in formal and informal learning settings. While the proposal did not gain funding, they were fortunate to receive generous support from the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation to develop a proof-of-concept online course.
The course will be comprised of modules that leverage each of the groups’ expertise in content and pedagogical approach. GHELI is leading the units on social determinants, health systems, and global governance, CHDS is leading the module units on diagnostic testing, epidemiological approaches, and mathematical modeling, and the Broad Institute is leading the units on infectious disease fundamentals, microbiology, genetics, vaccines, case studies, and emerging technologies. The GHELI Multimedia Learning Lab and CHDS Media Hub are collaborating on the overall instructional design of short-form content, learning materials, instructor guidance, and a structured process to prototype, pilot, and field test. The Broad Institute is also working on a significant enhancement to the Operation Outbreak simulation platform and an advanced textbook that will serve as reference material.
The meeting began with a presentation of background work on national and state-level learning standards led by CHDS and GHELI, which includes NGSS, insights from a systematic review of open-access existing educational materials, and a proposed structure for the instructional design approach. Broad participants informed the team of their companion textbook progress and updates made to the interactive capability for the Operation Outbreak simulation app. The meeting culminated in a gallery walk-through of pilot materials developed for the unit on diagnostic testing, spirited discussions about scale and scope, and a refined plan for the next three-month project period.
To find out more about outbreak science while the course is in development, explore our resouce pack on Global Infectious Diseases on our online repository.