Science Literacy in a Changing World: Covid-19 and CitySprouts Youth

“We’re going to be okay. We should worry about the elderly and people who are already sick. That’s why if there was a vaccine, we would get it to take care of them.” 

This is what our Youth Leadership Team, as well as you, me, and everyone else we know is talking about today. I can’t speak for you, but it was so deeply reassuring to me that our Youth Leadership team (ages 11-14) is taking a remarkably measured and calm position on COVID-19, balancing their concerns for the wellbeing of others with their concerns about their own safety, based on information they are reading about in newspapers and seeing on the news. In short, these students are practicing social-emotional skills alongside science literacy. 

The recent anxiety around COVID-19 is a clear sign that we need to do more to help youth become the environmental leaders of tomorrow, learning how to process scientific information paired with strengthening their ability to empathize. Not only do our youth need to learn about basic science, but they also need the skills to read and process scientific information and to make healthy choices based on that information. At CitySprouts, this often means learning about specific topics such as engineering, nutrition, and gardening, but it also means that our students are developing the ability to take that framework and apply it to other science-based fields, to current events and even to reporting, including this recent spate of infections. 

A purely science-based understanding of the very real threat COVID-19 presents to our most vulnerable populations does not automatically result in an empathetic response from adults, or from youth. But presenting this information alongside an empathy-based learning model gives students the skills to both see the areas of concern and how they impact those in our community.

Empathy for others paired with an understanding of the unique challenges we face as a community is what makes a CitySprouts garden a special environment for children to learn, as we adults face uncertainty in the larger world. And I, for one, am grateful to our students for responding to this crisis with cool heads and clear eyes and a focus on caring for one another. I can’t wait to see what type of leaders they grow up to be.