ABSTRACT
The 3D Weather Analysis and Visualization project (3D Weather) improves middle school students' computational thinking skills. 3D Weather focuses on evaluating three-dimensional data using the full data volume instead of the traditional approach using two-dimensional cross-sectional slices. We use basic meteorology as a contextual framework to introduce and provide the data for the computational thinking exercises. However, instead of directly developing lessons for the classroom, we are using a “teach the teacher” model. We provide a two-week summer professional development for middle school teachers in the state. During the program, the teachers are taught introductory weather science, the IDV visualization software basics, and how to obtain free weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Restrictions due to the COVID19 pandemic required modifications to our planned initial year activities, but we were able to pilot and obtain feedback to improve the program. Our plans for the 2021-2022 school year include offering our full summer professional development workshop, observing teachers in their classrooms while they implement meteorology lessons with computational thinking, and collecting data from both teachers and students measuring attitudes towards meteorology and computational thinking as well as changes in 3D visualization abilities. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the traditional inperson healthcare delivery model, prompting a shift to telemedicine to ensure continuity of care for pediatric rheumatology patients. The change to virtual practice affected healthcare provider's assessments of disease activity in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) as they were unable to perform hands-on physical assessments. Understanding the impact of this shift is critical to help address any care gaps that are faced during virtual visits for patients with JIA. Objectives: The objectives of the survey were four-fold: a) understand the impact of the switch from in-person to telemedicine visits from the healthcare provider perspective;b) identify the barriers and facilitators to collecting critical data elements that are important in monitoring JIA disease activity and outcomes;c) identify tools that providers are using during their telemedicine visits to perform disease activity assessments;and d) examine the impact of the telemedicine healthcare delivery on clinical research. Methods: A cross-sectional survey sent to members from all Pediatric Rheumatology Care and Outcomes Improvement Network (PR-COIN) centers (n=21) with total number of targeted respondents of 121. The survey was sent out for completion between 08/17/2020 - 09/ 02/2020. Quantitative responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative responses were analyzed by content and theme. Results: Survey ersponse rate was 98% (n=119) 90% fully completed. Most respondents (99%) indicated that they documented six critical data elements [CDE] (physician global assessment, patient global assessment, active joint count, morning stiffness, arthritis-related pain, and completion of uveitis screen) in 75% of telemedicine visits. Most respondents (74%) indicated that they documented active joint count over 70% of the time, while 30% of respondents reported barriers to documenting active joint count such as inability to palpate joints and the inability to visualize all joints on virtual examination. Identified barriers to assessment and visit documentation included challenges with assessing joint disease activity and platform technical issues. Ten percent of the respondents reported they often forgot to document CDE during telemedicine visits, indicating that setting up automated reminders in their electronic medical records may help with increasing their likelihood of documentation. A few centers reported having processes to assist with the collection of patient data in advance of the visit, such as pre-visitquestionnaires and planning. The ability to perform research activities was significantly impacted with only 37% of centers reported participating in research activities via telemedicine, and 29% reported their ability to consent patients via telemedicine visits. Conclusion: There are multiple barriers and facilitators to conducting successful clinical visits as well as performing clinical research over telemedicine. Our data suggests variation in telemedicine practice and process across centers, as well as within each center, reflecting the need to standardize the process of telemedicine visits. Given that a portion of patients with JIA will likely continue to be serviced over telemedicine post-pandemic, teams need to adapt their existing practices to continue providing quality care and integrating clinical research over this platform where appropriate.