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After teleworking for years, adjusting to social distancing and hunkering down has been relatively easy for me in terms of doing my job. Getting the hang of parenting during the new normal is harder. I have two children, both in middle school. Fortunately, they have their own devices, the requisite bandwidth and great teachers. But they were learning much more before the sudden switch to remote education in mid-March. Like most parents, I’m eager to see them return to brick-and-mortar classrooms once it’s safe.
If you’re looking forward to seeing your kids move on from Zoomed instruction, check out the practical explanation about what it may take from Samantha Keppler, a University of Michigan scholar who specializes in public education logistics. Together with a fellow operations researcher, she spells out some strategies schools everywhere may soon follow as they aim to “de-densify.”
Also today:
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Emily Schwartz Greco
Philanthropy + Nonprofits | Childhood + Parenting Editor
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Top story
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A teacher drops by her idled classroom.
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
Samantha Keppler, University of Michigan; Karen Smilowitz, Northwestern University
Making classrooms, cafeterias and other spaces less crowded will be essential. There are two main ways to do that.
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Economy + Business
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Elizabeth C. Tippett, University of Oregon
Tens of millions of Americans who have been telecommuting during the pandemic may have to head back to the office as governors lift stay-at-home orders. Here's what you can do if you'd rather not.
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Reid Kress Weisbord, Rutgers University Newark ; David Horton, University of California, Davis
Dying without a will can cause all sorts of problems for families.
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Amber Stephenson, Clarkson University
The gender bias scale could help companies and other organizations better measure how women experience and perceive gender bias.
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Ethics + Religion
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Lee McIntyre, Boston University
With so many people in need of financial support due to the coronavirus crisis, is it right to draw on unemployment when you have savings?
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Health + Medicine
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Erin DiCaprio, University of California, Davis
Should I wear a mask and gloves in the grocery story? Sanitize my food? A food virologist takes on the top questions people are asking as they shop for food amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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Bryan Keogh, The Conversation
Our experts mull what it will take to keep people healthy, whether there should be optimism for a vaccine and how to fight lockdown fatigue.
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Melissa Cyders, IUPUI; Kevin L. Ladd, Indiana University; Melissa S. Fry, Indiana University
The crisis has made recovery more difficult for those with substance use disorders. The inability to get to support group meetings, stress and illness are just some of the factors.
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Politics + Society
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Shauna Shames, Rutgers University
A scholar and mother of a young child who is now working at home explores what's called the 'work-family conflict' – and finds that's the wrong label for the impossible choices faced by parents.
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Scott Shackelford, Indiana University
US and international law conflicts about who would be in charge if a private company established a Moon base or colonized Mars.
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Environment + Energy
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Richard B. Primack, Boston University; Casey Setash, Colorado State University
The COVID-19 pandemic is interrupting scientific field work across North America, leaving blank spots in important data sets and making it harder to track ecological change.
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Arts + Culture
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Ben Saunders, University of Oregon
Little Richard honed his craft as a teenage drag queen. In everything from his hairstyle to his lyrics, we see the influence of gay contemporaries like Esquerita and Billy Wright.
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From our international editions:
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Alexander C. Lees, Manchester Metropolitan University; Oliver Metcalf, Manchester Metropolitan University
Storks – those harbingers of new life – are breeding in Britain again.
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Fisca Miswari Aulia, National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS); Maliki, National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS); M Niaz Asadullah, University of Malaya
Bappenas conducted a simulation to predict how COVID-19 will impact poverty in Indonesia. Without intervention, the pandemic will drag at least 3.6 million Indonesians into poverty by the end of 2020.
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Justin Bradfield, University of Johannesburg; Jerome Reynard, University of the Witwatersrand; Marlize Lombard, University of Johannesburg; Sarah Wurz, University of the Witwatersrand
The artefact comes from deposits dated to more than 60,000 years ago. It closely resembles thousands of bone arrowheads used by the indigenous San hunter-gatherers from the 18th to the 20th centuries.
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