Virus epidemic sparks creativity in schoolwork

As primary and secondary schools in Beijing have pivoted online to start the new semester, students and teachers are exploring new ways to study efficiently and learn at home.

Students from all middle school grades in the capital have been studying at home since Feb 17, the original opening day for classes. Reviewing last term's lessons was their main task until April 13. Until then, the introduction of a new curriculum was forbidden by the city's education authorities.

The stay-at-home period－a result of the novel coronavirus epidemic－has prompted middle school teachers to be innovative to capture and keep students' attention.

Wang Xi, a Chinese teacher for sophomores at the High School Affiliated with Beijing University of Science and Technology in Haidian district, said she finds that shared documents－where multiple users can view and make changes simultaneously－help a lot. Students can see their peers' work and critique it together.

Wang uses a shared document program called Graphite in her online lessons. It allows students to submit essays online and encourages them to check their work regularly.

"Students are more willing to submit their work on time and efficiently with the shared document because they know their classmates are watching," Wang said.

Since the spring semester began online in Beijing on April 13, the length of each online class has been shortened to protect students' eyes. Under rules laid down by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, primary school classes should not last longer than 25 minutes, and middle schools should take less than 35 minutes per lesson.

In general, students should spend less than four hours a day doing classwork online, and at least an hour of physical exercise per day is required.

"Online studying, for me, requires more self discipline," said Zhang Kexin, a 14-year-old eighth grader in Beijing. "I need to remind myself all the time to resist other temptations. For example, I want to check my cellphone to see whether I have new messages, which distracts me."

But staying at home for study has also helped Zhang expand her interests. In physics, for instance, some experiments conducted at home related to buoyancy aroused her interest in learning more about the subject.

By pouring different amounts of salt into soft drinks or water, a glass becomes a "cocktail" in which layered colors are produced.

"The more salt you pour into the water, the more it's driven to the bottom layer," she said.

She even bought some artificial food coloring to make the glass look better.

"I really enjoyed the process," she said. "Previously, I rarely talked in the classroom, but in the process of doing the physics experiment, I often asked questions in the group and searched for relevant information online to learn more about physics principles."

Li Xiaoli, Zhang's physics teacher, said she came up with the idea of making the salt cocktails to bring physics principles to life. Previously, she brought her own work from home or just explained the experiment through multimedia displays.

"Confronting the COVID-19 epidemic, I was thinking whether students could produce a piece of work by themselves through a physics experiment," Li said. "The process might relieve some pressure during the outbreak."

Wang, the Chinese language teacher, said the epidemic has also encouraged students to pay more attention to social issues, helping them think more deeply about the environment they live in and turn those thoughts into essays.

"It will greatly assist them in learning Chinese and in their college entrance exams," Wang said.

"Some of my students' thoughts－especially their thoughts on the epidemic situation－amazed me. I had to constantly think about what the epidemic has brought to teaching."