RESEARCH

I believe one of the best ways we can show people the importance of following COVID 19 guidelines is through education. Educating people on the science behind following these guidelines is the best way to work together and help contain the spread of this virus, which is what my capstone project is all about.

For my research paper, I explored the facts and scientific evidence surrounding COVID - 19 in hopes to educate others on why social distancing and wearing masks is crucial to saving lives and reducing the spread. Throughout my research, I discovered that the coronavirus is most often spread from person to person through tiny respiratory droplets, a piece of information which is vital to making people understand how this virus spreads. One critical piece of research I found is that “talking can launch thousands of droplets so small they can remain suspended in the air for eight to 14 minutes” (Sheikh, 2020). Since these particles can still stay in the air for a couple of minutes, it is important that people wear masks so they have a lower chance of getting infected and sick. Additionally, heavier droplets travel about 3 feet, with some droplets traveling even about 6 feet within the air (Geisinger, 2020). It is important to make people aware of how far these droplets can travel, and to realize how critical it is to stay 6 feet apart from others. Especially during a pandemic like this, when talking to another person, people should be aware of the risks of not wearing masks and remaining socially distant.

Through scientific research, we have learned a lot about the effectiveness of masks and social distancing, and I plan to use this research by implementing it into my project and sharing it with other classes and students here at SMSA to show them why social distancing and wearing masks is so important during a pandemic. In order to decrease the number of cases within our school and community, we must work together and each do our part in reducing the spread of this virus.