Bellevue science professor adapts to changing times

One professor at Bellevue University has turned to science to educate his students on the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Since the university has gone fully online to prevent the spreading on COVID-19, Tyler Moore, assistant professor of biology, is showing the importance of science.

Moore said he’s trying to make his courses as simple as possible, while also covering the most important concepts.

“We’re trying to reduce content to only get the really important things and I’m also trying to make sure we have more open-ended, engaging things,” he said.

“So what we’re trying to do, instead of having a bunch of little assignments, we’re trying to do one bigger project.”

Moore and his students have been using Zoom for sessions, and though he said it’s worked well, students are missing out on the hands-on element labs provide.

“We want to make sure people are getting the most and still getting techniques and the ability to analyze data,” he said. “So we’re trying to do as much as we can with spreading people out a little bit, allowing people to come in if they want to and do some lab activities and Zooming in.”

With many things changing every day due to the coronavirus, Moore said he wants to create an environment where the students can sit back and relax.

“I think they’ve got a lot of things going on, everyone has different challenges and they have all sorts of concerns, so what I’m trying to do is just take the pressure off and let’s try to just have fun and learn stuff,” he said.

“I want to have people view it as we’re just hanging out, pass the time and learn genetics. People are naturally excited about what we’re doing, you can’t put too much pressure but I think it’s a good distraction.

Moore said the current situation allows for good teaching material.

“You can see the value of having a good education in science, to have the capacity to solve these problems when they come up and to be able to communicate them as they come up,” he said. “It’s important to know what you’re doing. Getting everything out of your education right now is really valuable.”

In his courses, Moore has been discussing the immune system and how genetics play a role in the virus.

“We’re talking about how the current test works, and you have to understand quite a bit of genetics to understand how that test works,” he said.

“To be able to design new tests and new ways to doing things more quickly, you have to understand the basic science better.”