Through utilizing diverse methods, education provides a unique path both to discovering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and recommending recovery methods. During 2021-2022, we implemented a variety of educational opportunities - including special topics and directed studies courses, campus-wide presentations, and extracurricular activities - toward this end. Initially, we offered a special topics course in which Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) students explored foundational knowledge about the COVID-19 virus and its pandemic potential. This information was subsequently shared with their peers in a creative video presentation. Additionally, interdisciplinary faculty formed a publicly shared discussion panel regarding the COVID-19 vaccine and its significance to national recovery. This panel educated the students and public about the vaccines in addition to reinforcing participation for the on-site campus COVID testing and vaccine clinics. Next, we created a directed studies course in which BIMS and Public Health students researched the impact of the pandemic on mental health and proposed recovery methods through exercise. These students then presented their literature review findings and potential recovery methods to their peers in a presentation for the campus’s Fall Welcome Week as well as publicly at the Florida Behavioral Health Conference. Finally, we implemented the suggested recovery options on our campus. Another special topics course focused on exercise physiology was offered to equip students for proper exercise without injury. Additionally, freely available extracurricular activities like yoga and workout classes were offered, along with green exercises like gardening, kayaking, and trail walking, to improve campus resilience following the pandemic.

Authors:
Charity Cavazos, Texas A & M University, United States
Catherine Silkwood, Texas A & M University, United States
Negin Mirhosseini, Texas A & M University, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Charity Cavazos holds a B.S. in Kinesiology emphasis on Exercise Science from UT Brownsville, M.S. in Exercise Science from UT Brownsville, and PhD. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Oklahoma. She joined Texas A&M in the Fall of 2020.

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