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Research Case Study

Children’s questions, worries, and information needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. A study based on listeners of the children's science podcast Brains On! Executive Summary.

September 27, 2020 | Media and Technology

With the world in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, families are seeking trusted and engaging sources of scientific information to help their children understand prevention, transmission, treatment, and many other topics related to COVID-19 in an effort to ease children’s fears.  The goal of our NSF-funded RAPID research study is to understand how children’s science podcasts, as well as other educational products, can provide families with information to help ease children’s worries during a pandemic by increasing children’s understanding of pandemic-related science concepts, empowering children to ask more pandemic-related questions, and supporting pandemic-related family conversations. 

This executive summary shares an overview of findings from the first stage of our research. We drew on listeners of the children’s science podcast Brains On!’s as the sample for our study. Our data sources included a listener survey and children’s questions submitted to Brains On! or posted on Brains On’s! Facebook page. Our findings reveal important insights into the kinds of questions children are asking, the worries they have, and the types of support caregivers are seeking to be able to engage in discussions with their children about the COVID-19 pandemic specifically, and the science behind viruses and preventative health measures more broadly. We hope these findings can inform the development of coronavirus-related educational resources responsive to the information and education needs of families.

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    Science Museum of Minnesota
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    Science Museum of Minnesota
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    Science Museum of Minnesota
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    Science Museum of Minnesota
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    Science Museum of Minnesota
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    Science Museum of Minnesota
  • Juan Dominguez
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    Science Museum of Minnesota
  • Citation

    Funders

    NSF
    Funding Program: RAPID
    Award Number: 2029209
    Funding Amount: $200,000
    Resource Type: Research | Research Products
    Discipline: Health and medicine
    Audience: Elementary School Children (6-10) | Middle School Children (11-13) | Pre-K Children (0-5) | Families | Museum/ISE Professionals | Evaluators | Learning Researchers
    Environment Type: Media and Technology | Broadcast Media | Websites, Mobile Apps, and Online Media

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