This summer, I am working remotely on a team with Ignite to develop a health curriculum to be taught both in Guatemala and Peru, as well as domestically in cities like Durham. So far, I contributed to developing the key objectives for this course, as well as helped create a mind map of what big topics and main ideas we need to include for the course to be as comprehensive as possible. Some of these topics include communicable versus non-communicable diseases, disease prevention and treatment, epidemiology, etc. I’ve also proposed ideas for a prototype that the students can build using household materials as well as conduct research on methods of empowerment that can be included in the Ignite curriculum. I was surprised by how many disease prevention products you can make using household materials that are relevant right now during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I’m interested in learning more about human-centered design through the students building a prototype. I’m also really excited about structuring this course in a way that empowers the participating students to go out into their community and share what they’ve learned as they become the teachers of this curriculum. I’m really excited to continue working on this project over the next few weeks and learn more about how to empower students with science to make a difference in their community.
