Pandemic Archives - STEAMwhiz - The STEM Learning Lab

Posted on January 16, 2021January 16, 2021 by Allie

Winter Session 2021: Starts the week of Jan. 18th

We are happy to announce STEAMwhiz Winter Session 2021: Energy is Everywhere will be starting the week of Jan. 18^th!

With science guiding us, monitoring local metrics and statistics, and adhering to and exceeding local, regional, and national safety and health protocols, STEAMwhiz is ready to continue to offer invaluable, in-person labs and empower your NextGen Thinkers & Doers!

Calendar: Winter Session 2021

Jan. 18-22 All Winter Session Labs will begin

Feb. 15-19 February Recess: No Regular Scheduled Labs (Possible Make-up Labs)

March 29-Apr. 2 Final Week of Regular Scheduled Labs

Apr. 5-9 Possible Make-up Labs

STEAMwhiz’s Proactive COVID-19 Plan

Make-ups, Shutdowns, and Prorating

Winter Session 2021 has two-weeks built in exclusively for make-ups.

February Break Make-up
2nd week of April Make-up

We will work with you on a case-by-case basis to arrange the make-up times and days. In the unlikely chance we are not able to make up the day, we will prorate the days no questions asked =)

In the event of a shutdown, don’t worry we have a plan in place for that as well. We will offer a combination of live streaming and pre-recorded lab sessions with creative, multi-media content to keep our STEAMwhiz kids discovering, thinking, and creating at home, all while having fun with serious science. Hands-on materials will be checked out via contactless pick-up for these labs.

Lab Policy for Sick Children

Let’s face it, we are going to have sniffles, sneezing, etc. Normal, common-sense policies will apply. If your child is sick help them get better at home and don’t worry about the lab. We will make sure they make them up! Once they are recovered–masks, social distancing, handwashing, dedicated HVAC w/high-level filtration, nightly UV-C lab sanitation, hard-surface wipe downs, temperature checks, etc. will continue to keep the lab safe.

If your child is sick

If your child develops new symptoms here are our guidelines:

Let us know that your child is sick
Then do one of the following:

Wait the 10 day COVID-19 quarantine time prescribed by the CDC

— OR —

Have your child tested at a local COVID-19 test sites

In the event your child(ren)’s school, classroom, or building is placed on pre-cautionary quarantine, please contact us as soon as possible, adhere to the pre-cautionary quarantine regulations, and we will work with you to make-up any missed labs.

Together we can keep a safe environment for our kids to learn during these trying times.

Posted on January 11, 2021January 11, 2021 by Dr JP

COVID-19 & Winter Session Update – 1/11/2021

Hi everyone, we are tracking the numbers and our plan to start Winter Session on Jan. 18th. It is clear that travel and the holidays have made an impact and caused a spike in the local cases. Looking more carefully at the data, we are hopeful though that we will be able to return to the lab soon. We will make a final decision toward the end of the week as new data becomes available.

For reference we are over 2 times the daily infection rate than we were in late November/early December, 255 (now) vs 100 (then) new cases a day but it does look to be flattening out.

If we look at the number of COVID-19 deaths in NY, it’s clear we are much better at treating COVID-19 than we were at the start of the pandemic, as the number of cases is much higher now but the number of deaths remains much lower.

Locally in Albany, we are roughly at 1-3 deaths a day for the last month or so mostly from adult care centers/nursing homes. In light of the ability of hospitals to treat COVID-19 effectively, it is imperative local hospitals remain well below capacity. Hospital and ICU capacity in the capital region is at 23% and 18%, respectively, and we are not classified as a hotspot in the state of NY. The zone classifications are based on microclusters and hospital capacities.

If we look at relevant school numbers in our local area, there have been no new recent cases which is encouraging. This follows trends that have shown schools are safer due to the controlled environment and prevented policies in place to protect students. At the STEAMwhiz lab, we have set up even more stringent protocols to make sure our students are safe. In fact, this 2-week delay is a proactive measure we took to ensure our student’s safety! Let’s see how things shake out by the end of the week.

Guilderland Elementary COVID-19 report card

Hamagrael Elementary (Delmar, NY) COVID-19 report card

Finally, we are reaching out to STEAMwhiz parents regarding STEAMwhiz masks for use during labs. We have fabricated 40% of the masks for STEAMwhiz students and hope to finish them in the next week or so. Be on the lookout for a message from us in the near future. Thank you for your patience and we look forward to having the students back in the lab soon!

Posted on November 13, 2020November 17, 2020 by Dr JP

COVID-19: Temperature Screenings

We have had a good conversations regarding the efficacy of temperature screening in the STEAMwhiz lab with parents. We take the science of the pandemic serious and are implementing best practices to keep the lab safe. This includes temperature screenings amongst other things like 3D printed masks that offer N95 protection, HVAC filtration, UV-C light decontamination, learning PODS, and social distancing. Here is some useful information regarding temperature screening that is worth sharing!

Are temperature screening useful?

YES! A fever is a clear indication that you are not well 🤒 While a fever does not mean you have COVID-19, it does mean you should isolate yourself during the pandemic. You can then take the next steps to determine if you just have a common cold, the flu, or COVID-19.

What about asymptomatic transmission?

It is clear that COVID-19 can be spread by individuals that don’t show symptoms like a fever. CDC’s current best estimation puts asymptomatic virus transmission around 40%. So that means transmission could be reduce by 60% by just checking if we are not feeling well…like a basic temperature check!

What temperature would be considered a fever?

Depends on how you take the temperature. As you can probably imagine, the body measures different temperatures in different areas. The typical 100.4° F threshold recommended by the CDC is an ORAL temperature. For a non-contact infrared FOREHEAD measurement you should subtract 0.5° F from the recommendation which is 99.9° F.

What about countries that have COVID-19 under control?

It’s worth mentioning that other countries that do have COVID-19 under control (South Korea, Taiwan, etc.) have adhered to preventative measures which includes temperature screenings and stemming micro-outbreaks. Importantly, this does not include a vaccine and yet their cases are much lower and economies are returning to normal. While temperature screenings are not a magic bullet, it is one arrow in the quiver that will be needed to combat COVID-19.

Category: Pandemic