In this article, I note an observable social turn in languages arts curricula in Latin America. However, I argue that the effort to contextualize written language and bring everyday uses of writing into the classroom falls short of promoting a critical understanding of some key aspects of how literacies work. To do this, I analyze a recent…

Collaboration between industry and universities is a driving force for scientific and technological advancements. Due to the role of AstraZeneca (AZ), a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, an analysis of the collaboration between the company and universities in the UK is of…

Although many other factors come to bear on present issues in the contemporary world, vaccine hesitancy and refusal are also the direct result of poor STEM education. In this article we employ a sociological thought experiment methodology to articulate the shortcomings of STEM education and suggest pathways for much needed changes in solving…

Twitter has transformed into one of the main platforms for citizen engagement today. However, even though previous studies have focused on opinions about vaccines in general or about specific vaccines, opinions towards COVID-19 vaccines on Twitter have not been researched to date. The objective of this research is, by using social network analysis…

In this article, I present the eighteenth century's polemic of Bernoulli and d'Alembert concerning the smallpox epidemic and a prevention method called inoculation. Through an analysis of the polemic and the related resources, I show that this historical debate has various interests for mathematics education; and more specifically it can help…

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly around the world and has had significant impact on changing the social practices of everyday behavior and interpersonal communication of people. In Russia, the Moscow Region was one of the leaders in the number of people infected with COVID-19. Therefore, the focus of the present study is on the everyday…

With the pandemic, conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 began to spread rapidly in the virtual environment. It is not difficult for these conspiracy theories to replace scientific knowledge, particularly those with low scientific literacy. This study aimed to examine whether there is a relationship between university students' attitudes towards…

Purveyors of false treatments frequently claim their treatments are effective, despite a lack of evidence. In some cases, these treatments can lead to dire results. This column examines the use of one such false treatment, facilitated communication, that has reemerged despite a substantial body of evidence discrediting it. A description of the…

Parental vaccine hesitancy has been a hotly debated issue long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the emergence of a new vaccine during this public health crisis made even pro-vaccine individuals reconsider vaccines for their children. This scoping review was conducted to understand why parents expressed hesitancy towards the COVID-19 vaccine…

Objective: Understand student concerns with returning to in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic using an e-learning module. Participants: 925 undergraduate and graduate students returning to in-person instruction in Fall 2021. Methods: Five modules educated students about COVID and the transition to in-person learning and collected…

Background: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection. Current guidelines recommend HPV vaccination during adolescence, but vaccination rates remain suboptimal. Efforts are needed to increase vaccination among the catch-up group (individuals aged 18-26 years). Interventions have primarily focused on education,…

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the health of millions of people across the country -- at the time of publication, there have been over 20 million confirmed cases of the virus in England and just over 170,000 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, and the ONS estimate that 71% of the population have contracted the virus. Thinking about young…

Objective: To increase administration of influenza (flu), human papillomavirus (HPV) and meningococcal serogroup B (MenB) vaccinations to students at college student health centers (SHCs). Participants: Improvement teams from 45 US-based SHCs. Methods: Teams participated in a 7-month virtual learning collaborative to implement immunization…

Online anti-vaccine articles contribute to the anti-vaccine movement, which leads to recent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Previous studies indicate that anti-vaccine articles are easy to read and understand, which may increase their abilities to engage viewers. The present study aims to examine if readability levels are related to…

To facilitate people using mathematical reasoning to compare risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the COViD-TASER (Creation of Visualizations of Data: The Application of STEM Education Research) research team to create the COVID-19 Relative Risk Tool (RRT). The RRT uses an interactive bar chart…