In part of my previous blog post, I wrote about the VR headsets my students will need to use in order for me to collect my research. In a normal school year, I would allow students to share headsets from class to class or, if necessary, within the same class period without a second thought. And probably without cleaning them in between each use. Sharing is caring, right? Well, not currently.
As my district is finalizing and just about ready to launch the plan of opening the doors to students in a hybrid model next week, there have been many discussions held about how (or if) we can have students share materials with each other. For background, I am the English teacher within our STEAM Program at the high school level, which typically involves a lot of what we call "STEAM Challenges," where students are periodically posed with a problem they need to solve and a bunch of seemingly random materials they can use to solve it. Very hands on. Very sharing. Very closely working. Therefore, sharing materials has been a big question in the front of our minds for our return. Not only are we wanting to continue to challenge our students, but also keep them safe. One particular meeting held about sharing materials included the school nurse and her thoughts on this as a medical professional. The thoughts of gym equipment, lab equipment, books, robots, power tools, and more came to the table. As most schools function normally, students rarely ever get their "own" materials. There's usually a class set of prepared items for the day's lesson. This could be due to cost, necessity, group work, or other reasons.
However, the general consensus was don't share items if possible, but if items absolutely have to be shared amongst students, a laundry list of steps are to be followed. This forced me to be creative when deciding how to keep students safe while using the VR headsets that will be touching not only their faces, but also their hands; two of the easiest ways to share and contract COVID-19 or any other illnesses.
Pictured right is my "invention" of how to keep students safe while participating in my research project. I invested time into researching the best way to keep students safe while having to directly interact with something that will touch their face. I first consulted the CDC for guidance on cleaning and disinfecting surfaces. Per the CDC, "If your workplace, school, or business has been unoccupied for 7 days or more, it will only need your normal routine cleaning to reopen the area. This is because the virus that causes COVID-19 has not been shown to survive on surfaces longer than this time" (CDC 2020). Since there will be around 2 weeks between each use of the headset, a routine cleaning should do the trick. From here, the CDC article suggested to consult the EPA's List N for disinfectants for COVID-19. I learned the "EPA expects all products on List N to kill the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) when used according to the label directions" (List N 2020). I also learned about identifying the EPA Reg. No. on labels for both brand and off brand versions of a product. The Clorox wipes I have for students to use on their headsets are EPA Reg. No. 5813-79. When using the EPA's List N Advanced Search Page, the type of wipes I have were added to the list on August 20, 2020 to successfully disinfect against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). As long as students wipe their headsets so the surface remains visibly wet for 4 minutes and then is allowed to air dry, the surface will be properly disinfected. All of this, coupled with allowing only the student who will be using the headset to touch the headset, students should remain safe for the duration of this research study.
Steps to be taken when students first receive their headset:
Student will sanitize their hands and desk using hand sanitizer (70% alcohol) and district plan approved cleanser.
Student will get a bag and use a permanent marker to write their name on the outside of the bag. Markers cleaned between students.
Teacher will distribute headset to student by touching only the outer plastic shrink wrap and emptying the headset onto each participating student's desk.
Student will assemble their headset for use by direction of the teacher. (I will keep one headset back for modeling purposes.)
Student will put their headset into the bag, close the bag, then place their bag into the empty bookshelf to quarantine until needed. (2 weeks.)
Steps to be taken when students need to use their headset:
Student will sanitize their hands and desk using hand sanitizer (70% alcohol) and district plan approved cleanser.
Student will retrieve their bag only and wipe the outside of their bag before opening.
With clean hands, students are able to use their headset as designed.
After use, students will disinfect their headset per the directions on the Clorox wipe label, put the headset back in the bag, then place their bag into the empty bookshelf to quarantine until needed again. (2 weeks.)
The above process for headset use will be repeated for the next use. After research is completed, students will disinfect their headset one more time, allow them to quarantine, and the teacher will take care of them for storage or use in another fashion.
In my next post, I will discuss how the researching process has been going after the addition of students in my classroom. The students have learned today which day they will be attending school in person and are very excited to get back into a school building. I continue to look forward to sharing my research through this internship journey. Feel free to contact me through the comments, this site, or email me at mtyson2@ycp.edu. Look for a supplemental post about how I was able to get my VR headsets fully funded through my first DonorsChoose Project coming soon.
References
CDC (2020, September 16). Guidance for Cleaning and Disinfecting Public Spaces, Workplaces, Businesses, Schools, and Homes. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019- ncov/community/pdf/reopening_america_guidance.pdf
List N: Disinfectants for Coronavirus (COVID-19) (2020, December 15). Retrieved February 02, 2021, from https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants- coronavirus-covid-19