by Maya Barr | 19 May 2021 | Americas, Educators' Catalog, Health and Wellness, Hewitt, Human Rights, Science, Student Posts, Youth Voices
More people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. than in any other nation. Will the suffering breathe new life into efforts to reform a flawed system? Protesters in support of a single-payer healthcare system, New York City, 24 July 2017 (EPA/JUSTIN LANE) This is the...
The U.S. healthcare system is complicated. But that did not deter Maya Barr of The Hewitt School from examining the system’s shortcomings, which have been exposed during COVID-19. For her research, Barr dug into data from the Census Bureau, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pew Research Center and Johns Hopkins, as well as reports by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the American Hospital Association. Barr weighs the pros and cons regarding a single-payer system in her balanced, forward-looking report.
by Hanna Rahman | 14 May 2021 | Americas, Health and Wellness, Hewitt, Podcasts, Science, Student Posts, Youth Voices
New York City was hit hard by COVID-19, which exposed health and social inequities. But Dr. Graham Barr says there are useful lessons for the future. News Decoder · What COVID-19 tells us about the U.S. healthcare system This is the third of five articles by students...
by Elisabeth Wachtel | 13 May 2021 | Americas, Europe, Government, Health and Wellness, Personal Reflections, Science, Youth Voices
COVID-19 has hit France and the U.S. to a similar extent. But their approaches to tackling the pandemic have been radically different — as I’ve seen. Elisabeth Wachtel in front of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral In January, I moved from the United States to...
by Jeremy Lovell | 10 May 2021 | Environment, Technology
More needs to be done so electric vehicles can reach their potential to reduce carbon emissions. But surging sales show they are here to stay. Wallbox for charging an electric car (Frank Hoermann/SVEN SIMON/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images) Electric cars are flying off...
by Gustav Paulander, Henrik Skaringer and Thomas Winship | 7 May 2021 | Educators' Catalog, Environment, European School Brussels, Student Posts, Youth Voices
Individual acts to shrink our carbon footprint are fine. But to prevent a climate disaster on Earth, governments must pass laws to cut carbon emissions. News Decoder · The Great Acceleration The numbers are shocking. In just seven decades, our population has more than...
In this podcast, three students from the European School of Brussels II argue that individual acts to shrink our carbon footprint are fine, but governments must pass laws to cut carbon emissions to prevent a climate catastrophe. Gustav Paulander, Henrik Skaringer and Thomas Winship examine “The Great Acceleration” – the dramatic surge in growth across a large range of measures of human activity since the mid-20th Century – and what it implies for our planet’s future.
by Akvile Seleviciute and Auguste Sturlyte | 31 Mar 2021 | Art, Contest winners, Contests, Environment, European School Brussels, Student Posts, Youth Voices
Students in Brussels are engaging in an art protest to show the world that it’s time to make far-reaching changes to avert a climate catastrophe. A sketch of “The Writing’s on the Wall,” by Amélie Zimmermann This story was a runner-up in News...
by Li Keira Yin | 25 Mar 2021 | Americas, Educators' Catalog, Environment, Health and Wellness, Student Posts, Thacher School, Youth Voices
California’s water supplies are being squeezed by climate change. By better capturing, recycling and distributing water, the state can avert a crisis. A dry reservoir bed in Cupertino, California, 13 March 2014 (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) Water has long been...
Beset by raging wildfires and drought, Californians could be forgiven for thinking a climate Armageddon is upon them. The easy assumption would be that global warming means the most populous U.S. state does not have enough water for its many farmers and citizens. Keira Yin of The Thacher School provides a fuller picture by interviewing a water resilience expert and probing data. She concludes that stepped-up efforts to better capture, recycle and distribute water could go a long way towards ensuring the state can fend off the effects of climate change. Ask your students to consider how climate change is affecting water supplies in your region and to identify what the government is or could be doing about it.
by Tira Shubart | 18 Mar 2021 | Science, Space, World
By exploring Mars, we have taken a step closer to understanding humankind. Did life begin on the Red Planet? Could we one day live there? The first high-resolution, color image sent by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing on 18 February 2021...
by Santiago Riveros Crosby | 16 Mar 2021 | Educators' Catalog, Environment, Gimnasio Los Caobos, Student Posts, Youth Voices
An old man and his great-grandson look out over a city—devoid of trees. Is this nature as our offspring will know it? Claude Monet, “Weeping Willow” (1918), Columbus Museum of Art, Wikimedia Commons Santiago Riveros Crosby is a student at News Decoder...
Climate change poses an existential threat to humanity that hangs like a dark cloud over students. Add to that a pandemic that has killed millions and turned students’ lives inside out, and you have a one-two punch to the mental well-being of even the most resilient students. Santiago Riveros Crosby of Gimnasio Los Caobos has both climate change and COVID-19 in mind in his very short story that takes us to the year 2060 and a landscape devoid of trees, viewed by a masked boy and his great-grandfather. Writing tightly is tough, but in just a few words, Crosby evokes a young generation’s angst. Ask your students to express their feelings about global warming and the pandemic — using the medium of their choice.
by Sarah Edmonds | 10 Mar 2021 | Decoders, Educators' Catalog, Health and Wellness, Science, World
Around the world, microbes are outsmarting drugs. If antibiotics against disease don’t work, bacteria could end up killing more people than COVID-19. A girl suspected of suffering from drug-resistant typhoid receives medical treatment at a hospital in Hyderabad,...
COVID-19 has upended the lives of billions of people, and for many, the end is not yet in sight. But in her thoroughly researched article, News Decoder correspondent Sarah Edmonds looks beyond the pandemic at an insidious epidemic that could, over time, kill many more people than COVID-19 ever will. The topic has a complicated name — antimicrobial resistance (AMR) — but Edmonds explains it in simple terms and demonstrates why all of us need to be concerned about AMR. Edmonds’s article, which is supported by interviews with top scientists, is not all gloom and doom. It makes the case that COVID-19 may make governments more prone to act in time to arrest AMR. Edmonds’s article is essential reading for anyone new to the important topic of AMR. Assign it and ask your students to identify lessons that can be drawn from COVID-19 to help the world in the future.
