Covid-19 quiz exposes misconceptions

Almost anything we do about covid-19 is going to have a short expiry date. Nevertheless, I'm posting this exercise as it's from one of my favourite YouTube channels, ColdFusion. It's one of the new wave of semi-professional science & technology channels that offer fresh, well-researched and entertaining short videos that are perfect for use in English classes.

Dagogo Altraide is the person behind ColdFusion and his videos are not always perfect. But in a classroom situation, that can be an advantage as we want students to approach media critically. It's not so easy to be critical of well-funded, slick and professional films. Dagogo himself usually ends videos by asking, "What do you think?" and it's this kind of curiosity and openness that makes him a good role model. Furthermore, Dagogo's optimism is infectious.

Here's the video:

Altraide,  Dagogo [ColdFusion]. 29 March 2020. "COVID-19: We’re Fighting a War, But There’s Hope". Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/RFnSmcfKWQo

Here's the quiz: https://forms.gle/Fh3VCjRWpiVbzsTH8
I was a bit surprised to discover how many misconceptions people have about the new coronavirus. So the quiz is worth taking.

Here's a link that allows you to make a copy of the quiz (but you'll need to send an access request):
Quiz - Covid-19: We're fighting a war but there's hope

Video + Quiz = Nice

Before I die, I should get round to tasting a Subway sandwich. Problem is, I'm too shy, self-conscious and indecisive. If they had a sort of Soviet Russian version with just one type of sandwich, I'd probably go there.

Anyway, for some reason, mysterious algorithms directed me towards watching this video about Subway. As a loyal servant of our machine overlords, I obeyed.

It turns out that Business Insider's YouTube channel is a goldmine, especially if like me, you're interested in what makes businesses tick.

Liking the video a lot, I decided to get my students to watch it and designed a quiz in Google Forms to test their understanding and stimulate interest in what it takes to be successful in the fast food business. Here's a link to the quiz: https://forms.gle/L8dVgEFaM8diJFzA8

Embarrassingly, the quiz contained many errors which my very gifted and attentive students pointed out. So if you like this quiz, you really have my students to thank.

This link lets you make a copy which you can adapt and publish: Quiz: The rise and fall of Subway but you'll need to send an access request as there's no safe way to share a form for copying whilst preventing everyone with the link being able to edit the original.

Google Forms is a fantastic tool when you want to check if students have read a text or watched a video and really understood it. A well designed quiz lets you check if everyone understands core concepts and language before launching into more ambitious group work on a subject.

Here's a guide that helped me get started: Create & grade quizzes with Google Forms

Finally, my students give Subway an average score of 3.35 out of 5 which is pretty positive. I must ask them about other fast food outlets...

Narishkin, Abby. 28 July 2019. "The Rise and Fall of Subway". Business Insider. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/duQow41bTx0