Once again, I shook up my Cell and Molecular Biology of Aging class, this time due to the #covid19 pandemic.

Thread. 1/

First, while my class is, on the surface, about the recent scientific discoveries that transformed our understanding of aging…

the real goal is to help upper-level undergrads and grad students to become judicious and informed citizens. 2/

To do that, we dig deep into the literature and work in teams to evaluate and communicate scientific findings.

This helps the students become more judicious scientists, but can we help them have a greater purpose?

Enter Service Learning. 3/

The premise of my classroom service experiment is that by engaging with seniors in our community through service, the students would bridge the gap from learning about the basic science of aging to caring with purpose. 4/

Why do this? Because mentoring our students to become caring and judicious citizens is the most rewarding part of being an educator.

This email from a former student, last week, was the highlight of my week: 5/

Service-learning worked great a year ago, when my students spent over a hundred hours baking, painting nails, exercising, providing tech support, and socializing with seniors in six nearby assisted-living facilities.

https://twitter.com/JavierApfeld/status/1211678087517130752

But, this year, #covid19 happened 6/

This time, we teamed up with @CICOA, the Central Indiana Council on Aging.

Each student was matched with a senior, and called that senior each week throughout the semester. 7/

As noted by John Dewey more than 100 years ago, "we do not learn from experience so much as we learn from reflecting on experience."

So, throughout the semester, my students reflected on their service experiences though the amazing TEAMMATES peer-feedback app. 8/