Dr Andrew Manches has led the development of an educational resource by interpreting existing Move2Learn resources in the context of the pandemic. The Covid-19 special edition card pack has also been informed by feedback from a clinical psychologist and advisory panel including diversity and equality experts.
It is hoped that the resource will support teachers bringing together children who may have had very different experiences of the last few months. The cards can be used as a standalone resource or as part of a game to help children discuss, learn, and share experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The last few weeks have been driven by the single vision of getting resources to schools for the start of the academic year in Scotland. The team have distributed 100 packs of cards across Scotland ready for the start of term. Card packs have been allocated to areas based on confirmed cases of coronavirus (using Scottish Government statistics) and we have worked with the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (and others) to help identify teachers and STEM mentors to receive the packs. Packs have been allocated to ensure that a higher proportion of packs go to areas that have had higher numbers of cases (Glasgow, Lothian, Lanarkshire). This allocation approach also means that the team will hopefully be able to collate feedback from schools on the use of the cards in areas with different experiences of the last few months. Feedback received will be used to inform further editions of STEAM Charades cards as well as a future research project exploring how Move2Learn resources can be co-designed into useful teacher training and materials.
After rather a lot of envelope packing (with gloves and masks) at the end of last week the team are now turning their attention to the promotion of the resource, sharing the cards as widely as possible by promoting the free downloadable version, available here. Physical sets of cards can also be purchased via the same link.
Special thanks go to everyone supporting the development of the pack including colleagues in the Centre for Research in Digital Education, our expert panel (Professor Jo Williams, Professor John Ravenscroft, Professor Rowena Arshad, Professor Shaaron Ainsworth, Dr Sharon Macnab, Paul Nisbet, and Jamie Menzies), Aiko Greig and Natasha Collinson for helping with promotion.