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No one at the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth was quite sure what to expect this week when they sat down in a stuffy conference room to host the center's first-ever online kids' "Webinar," on the H1N1 flu pandemic, dubbed Swine Online '09.
As it turned out, 55 youngsters logged on from around the country - one as young as 8. And by instant message and telephone, they lobbed 115 questions at two Hopkins epidemiologists.
"We were blown away," said a center spokesman, Charles Beckman. "We never get anywhere near that many from adults."
"It was especially difficult ... even to weed through some of these," said Stacy Johnson, who funneled the students' questions to the scientists Tuesday night. "There was some pretty high-level stuff."
One student tapped out this instant message: "The SIR model says that ds/dt=-BSi. Using RO, does this mean we can rewrite this as –RO/(cD)SI= -Ro gamma ... ?"
None of this fazed the epidemiologists, Justin Lessler and Derek Cummings, both 35-year-old teachers and researchers at Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health. Nor were they bothered by the fact they could not see the students, and vice versa.
"I thought it would be more sterile than it was," said Lessler. "A lot of times, in a classroom setting, you get one person dominating the conversation or a lot of people will freeze up. ... In terms of the number of questions we were getting, it was like I always hope a classroom lecture would be."
Brittany Thomas, 16, a junior at Garfield High in Woodbridge, Va., got involved with the center in seventh grade to find "a challenge, something different I wasn't being exposed to in my school." The Webinar was "incredible," she said. "Hearing about swine flu, or H1N1, and hearing the perspective of a trained professional was very interesting. And I actually was able to ask questions. I was so impressed."
The Webinar was conducted on a 3¿-year-old CTY Web site called Cogito.org, where pre-college students identified as gifted by the Hopkins enrichment and research program can immerse themselves in science and math, learn about summer programs and internships, and hang out with scientists and one another. Swine Online '09 was the culminating event for CTY students who had spent several weeks on Cogito.org exploring issues surrounding the flu pandemic.
"These are kids who have a passion for math and science," among their other interests, said Karen Henoch-Ryugo, who monitors the online student community. Cogito.org provides "a place where they don't have to dumb down, can relax and indulge in challenging, intellectually engaging conversations, or just talk."
Talk? Well, not exactly. Lessler and Cummings sat at a conference table in the center's Mount Washington offices and delivered their pandemic presentation into a speaker phone, while the students followed the Power Point slides on their home computers.
The presentations covered the history of flu pandemics; the function of the "H" and "N" proteins on the viruses; how the flu is transmitted; and how epidemiologists predict the course of pandemics with computer models.
Most kids typed their questions, which appeared on a projection screen at the end of the room. "What is the average case fatality for H1N1? How come the CDC doesn't want to close down schools? How come it takes so long to make a swine flu vaccine? What makes H1N1 itself so contagious?"
Center staffers scrambled to winnow the questions and feed them to the scientists. And when their inaugural Webinar ended, there was a huge sigh of relief in the room. "You guys did an absolutely fabulous job," Henoch-Ryugo told her panelists.
Perhaps best of all, said Johnson, "we didn't spread any germs."
> Read Frank Roylance's blog on MarylandWeather.com
As it turned out, 55 youngsters logged on from around the country - one as young as 8. And by instant message and telephone, they lobbed 115 questions at two Hopkins epidemiologists.
"We were blown away," said a center spokesman, Charles Beckman. "We never get anywhere near that many from adults."
"It was especially difficult ... even to weed through some of these," said Stacy Johnson, who funneled the students' questions to the scientists Tuesday night. "There was some pretty high-level stuff."
One student tapped out this instant message: "The SIR model says that ds/dt=-BSi. Using RO, does this mean we can rewrite this as –RO/(cD)SI= -Ro gamma ... ?"
None of this fazed the epidemiologists, Justin Lessler and Derek Cummings, both 35-year-old teachers and researchers at Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health. Nor were they bothered by the fact they could not see the students, and vice versa.
"I thought it would be more sterile than it was," said Lessler. "A lot of times, in a classroom setting, you get one person dominating the conversation or a lot of people will freeze up. ... In terms of the number of questions we were getting, it was like I always hope a classroom lecture would be."
Brittany Thomas, 16, a junior at Garfield High in Woodbridge, Va., got involved with the center in seventh grade to find "a challenge, something different I wasn't being exposed to in my school." The Webinar was "incredible," she said. "Hearing about swine flu, or H1N1, and hearing the perspective of a trained professional was very interesting. And I actually was able to ask questions. I was so impressed."
The Webinar was conducted on a 3¿-year-old CTY Web site called Cogito.org, where pre-college students identified as gifted by the Hopkins enrichment and research program can immerse themselves in science and math, learn about summer programs and internships, and hang out with scientists and one another. Swine Online '09 was the culminating event for CTY students who had spent several weeks on Cogito.org exploring issues surrounding the flu pandemic.
"These are kids who have a passion for math and science," among their other interests, said Karen Henoch-Ryugo, who monitors the online student community. Cogito.org provides "a place where they don't have to dumb down, can relax and indulge in challenging, intellectually engaging conversations, or just talk."
Talk? Well, not exactly. Lessler and Cummings sat at a conference table in the center's Mount Washington offices and delivered their pandemic presentation into a speaker phone, while the students followed the Power Point slides on their home computers.
The presentations covered the history of flu pandemics; the function of the "H" and "N" proteins on the viruses; how the flu is transmitted; and how epidemiologists predict the course of pandemics with computer models.
Most kids typed their questions, which appeared on a projection screen at the end of the room. "What is the average case fatality for H1N1? How come the CDC doesn't want to close down schools? How come it takes so long to make a swine flu vaccine? What makes H1N1 itself so contagious?"
Center staffers scrambled to winnow the questions and feed them to the scientists. And when their inaugural Webinar ended, there was a huge sigh of relief in the room. "You guys did an absolutely fabulous job," Henoch-Ryugo told her panelists.
Perhaps best of all, said Johnson, "we didn't spread any germs."
> Read Frank Roylance's blog on MarylandWeather.com
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I loved Swine Online, unfortunately I had to log out early and missed a quarter of it. I really hope that there will be another webinar like it soon!
Bay_Grrl (10/31/2009, 11:48 AM )