- [Announcer] Funding for this program has been provided by.

(marker writing on paper) (upbeat rock music) - Hi, I'm Olivia and welcome to Young Creators Studio.

All across our region, young creators are using video, not only for social media platforms, but to tell stories that deserve to be seen and heard.

Whether they're self-taught, learning in classrooms, or art programs, we're giving them a space to show their creative and informative films.

So kick back and grab a snack.

This is Young Creators Studio.

(upbeat rock music) - [Alisha] An island in the Caribbean, is the destination of today's story.

- [Kaveen] Screen use forces your eyes to constantly focus, refocus, and move around the screen.

- [Male] I can sneeze at the starting line, and when I finish my first lap, I just went right into my old sneeze.

- Virtual learning.

You feel like you're alone when you're doing it.

- [Woman] Sometimes I finish before like 12 and other days I'm working till like nine at night.

It just doesn't make sense.

- [Maxine] When the pandemic hit my school needed people to take care of some animals.

(upbeat rock music) (markers swooping) - Welcome to Young Creators Studio.

This past year, the pandemic changed many students' learning experiences.

We had to see teachers and classmates in small boxes on a computer screen, which challenged both students and teachers alike.

However, with some adjustments and making the best of situations, some teachers and students were able to adapt and figure out clever ways to have fun while learning as we'll see in these upcoming videos.

(markers swooping) (inside aircraft engine noise) (ethnic string music) (party goers chattering) (wind blowing) (rain pattering) (birds chirping) (spoon banging) (grease sizzling) (rooster caws) (walking on gravel) (gentle piano music) - [Alisha] No one saw it coming.

Maybe the government did.

An island in the Caribbean is the destination of today's story.

It's easy to get caught up in the moment and cry when things don't go as planned.

As soon as you know it you've arrived.

Mask hung on your face, passport in your hand, six feet away from everyone.

The only comfort you feel is the breeze and the familiar faces of your family.

Remember you can't get too close, social distancing, but they don't care or stare, we're friendly people.

Must be why the COVID cases are so high here.

There is no greater desire or feeling to go home too much to do and not enough time and a one-way ticket blocking you.

It is what it is.

All you can do is try to enjoy yourself and let someone else pick up all of your mangoes to make you happy.

Friends get closer, more happy time.

You're a little more positive about the trip.

Let's just hope you don't get tested positive.

(clock ticking) (record needle being placed) (drumsticks clacking together) (mellow jazz music) - [Kaveen] Virtual learning is here to stay.

Just this past week the district announced a plan that will postpone in-person learning for most high schoolers until at least January.

(smooth jazz music) For many students and teachers at Masterman this means continued problems related to extended electronic use including eye strain, headaches, neck pain, and an overall Zoom fatigue.

- Would you say you've been having headaches or like your eyes have been tired at the end of the day?

And if so, for how long?

Since like school started over?

- Definitely some headaches, and I try to keep like eyedrops or something by my computer so I can just, especially cause I wear contacts and it can really like dry out my eyes.

I really feel like my eyes are just a lot of eye strain.

They sometimes feel sore.

I've had a little red spot that I don't think I've had before.

And I noticed that I'm getting more headaches than I usually get.

- Headaches and fatigue definitely.

Like extreme headaches.

- [Kaveen] According to Dr. Thieu an optometrist at Temple University, screen use forces your eyes to constantly focus, refocus and move around the screen, placing extra strain on eye muscles.

Additionally, we blink less frequently when using electronics potentially causing dry eye and vision blur.

Further, some studies have found an association, although not a causation between screen use and near-sightedness, something that may lead to long lasting effects, says Dr. Aguirre, an Associate Professor of Neurology and a vision scientist at the University of Pennsylvania.

- One major consequence that we might need to think about for a generation of kids who have to go and spend more time indoors from learning at home is that they might have an increased chance of developing myopia and needing glasses later in life.

So that's one consequence for the developing eye.

- [Kaveen] Blue light also suppresses melatonin, which can interfere with sleep.

- It's definitely affected my falling asleep.

I think it definitely takes me longer because I'm always checking my phone to see if I have messages from friends because it's like the only chance I get to talk to them so I have it with me up until like, I go to bed.

And my parents make me plug it in for the night in another room so I don't have it next to my bed, but still being on it, at least within an hour of me trying to fall asleep, it definitely affects my falling asleep.

- [Kaveen] This has led students and teachers to search for solutions with varying degrees of success.

- I guess I kinda heard about them because like there's lots of online, you hear about like blue light glasses that'll help your headaches and stuff.

- I did like one day of school without the glasses, like before I had purchased them.

And my head was like, it literally felt like I just had a concussion.

- I didn't find them very effective.

I actually, the first period I used them, I thought it hurt my eyes even more than when I didn't have them on.

- They've helped like actually more than I expected because they were like $10 from Staples.

There wasn't any like grand purchase, but for the most part, I don't really have headaches at least like during the classes now.

And yeah, if I wear them, like I'm supposed to almost like there's no symptoms.

- [Kaveen] So do blue light glasses actually work?

Blue light scatters more and is less focused than other types of light, which decreases contrast and leads to eyes strain.

According to Dr. Thieu, blue light glasses do in fact lessen eye strain by increasing contrast.

But other solutions might be more beneficial if you're looking to get a good night's sleep.

- To summarize blue blocking glasses, they might be useful to help reduce eyestrain from bright light, but even more effective would be letting you be exposed to bright light during the day and dim light at night.

- [Kaveen] There are also plenty of other strategies for minimizing eye strain that don't involve blue light glasses.

- The most important one we always like to stick to the 20, 20, 20 rule where you have for every 20 minutes that you're on the computer you want to take a 20 second break by looking 20 feet away.

Meaning just looking away from the computer.

Don't look at, let's say your phone or anything up close, books or anything.

So just give your eyes a break, either that or close your eyes for a few seconds, just to kind of reboot the visual system.

- [Kaveen] Including some important notes about computer positioning.

- Ideally you want to be able to look at your computer at a down gaze.

It's a little bit easier to on the muscles anyways, as you look down at your screen, as opposed to looking up.

And be about, I guess at least an arm's length away from the screen there.

- Make your environment brighter, so make the room brighter.

Like as much as you can, work next to a window with the shade up and some bright light streaming in that's also really helpful and do that during the day.

First thing in the morning, that's going to really help with eye strain, with sleep regulation and then for this normal development of the eye.

- [Kaveen] The impacts of virtual learning, aren't limited to eyes strain.

- Just staring at the screen and talking to everyone through the screen is very draining.

- [Kaveen] There's a reason behind the so-called Zoom fatigue.

- All of these aspects of communicating through screens and virtual calls and all the rest.

It adds a little bit of cognitive load.

I mean, we've been mostly talking about vision, but these things are hard for all of our senses.

Hearing is frustrating.

I don't know about you, but on these calls, I find there's a lot more of people trying to take turns speaking, and then they end up speaking over one another.

Their what I wanna say collides with what the next person wants to say, in a way that would never happen in person.

So I don't know, I feel like I need a break about every 45 minutes to go let my senses work in the natural world.

(markers swooping) (bell dings) (slow electric guitar music) (piano music) - Even during a global pandemic, my family was still determined to go to Florida.

We normally go every year, so it kinda turned into our own little family tradition.

- And now to the Corona virus.

- We are five months into this pandemic.

More than 150,000 people have died of the coronavirus.

- A life threatening one now.

Unless you've been living under a different planet, you know that our world is threatened by a deadly new virus.

COVID-19 AKA the newest coronavirus.

The USA has become one of the countries that is ground zero.

And now I'm heading to the belly of the beast, the Michael Jordan of infestations, Florida.

I came prepared with my hand sanitizer, gloves, mask, backup mask, and bandana to act as my emergency mask.

But it's all good because I know a few tips and tricks that can help me survive, even helping you guys out at home.

So that raises the question.

Is it possible to never get sick?

So with me running like a buffoon, every time I take a breath, my saliva, bacteria, and other gross things I gave out of my body into your precious air.

Sneezing can have a distance of 27 feet after the initial blast, not only that, but it could stay around the area for several minutes.

I can sneeze at the starting line and when I finished my first lap, I could smack right into my old sneeze.

That lingering bacteria can land onto your shirt and then you're touching these germs.

The bacteria may be sprinkled with a little COVID-19 you'll never know can go right into your mouth.

And how wonderful is that?

Social distancing is one way that we can prevent the spread.

But the best things we have right now are masks.

They may not shield you a hundred percent of the time, but they will a hundred percently be a whole lot better than not covering your face in public.

So that's why you should wear more masks, it keeps you protected from the air.

So that way you don't get infected as easy.

Even though the CDC has made several warnings about wearing masks and social distancing, it seems like that they don't really follow it in Florida.

I tried my best to keep a safe distance so I don't get infected, but it really seems like this place is its own separate world.

Like the disease is barely even occurring.

They have signs in everything, but none of the people really care.

Overall I have to say, I had a lot of fun on my trip to Florida.

I tried to have as much fun as I could, as well as being safe.

Seeing other people, not being as safe as I was, was definitely a little disheartening, kind of reminded me of how long the situation might be holding on for us.

But the most that you can do is just protect yourself and make sure that you're safe and your family is safe.

And that means hygiene, social distancing, masks, things like that.

We're all going through this together and we're all trying to go back to the way that things were and we're able to do that if we all just work together.

So even if I'm in Florida or back here in Philadelphia, it's important to be safe and you should, as well.

(markers swooping) - [Denzel] Virtual learning has been on the minds of students, teachers, and parents, since March.

- [Maizy] As we head into the fall 2020-2021 school year, we decided to interview eight students from three different states on what they felt the pros and cons of virtual learning were.

- I did not feel like online learning was an effective way to learn because I think by the end of it, everybody was kind of, not as motivated as they would have been in the classroom.

- From what I remember, I definitely didn't learn anything new over in virtual learning.

I guess that would be a con actually, being that I was just doing work.

Like I didn't learn anything.

- It's just easier to focus in the classroom, like in a real classroom and I just feel like a lot of kids have a harder time teaching themselves.

- I feel like I'm very motivated learning wise.

I feel like regardless of the method used to teach, I would pour my all into it.

So I found myself like adjusting quite nicely, but I know some people aren't very motivated to learn.

- I wasn't as concentrated at school, but at home, since like I'm all by myself and I can focus, it's better.

But I feel like for other people, if they don't got no internet access or laptops, they can't really do their work.

- From middle school to high school they're providing Wi-Fi and like computer and all the other stuff, but colleges aren't.

College just expects you to have these things because they're considered essential at this point.

And I don't really like that because not most people live as comfortably as having internet as an essential thing.

Like having internet is a luxury.

- [Denzel] All those schools have done a lot to accommodate their students' spiritual education.

There's still much that's to be done to ensure students have all they need to survive the school year virtually.

- As students, I think to make the most out of our situation, we should definitely use like Zoom and FaceTime to our benefit because I think when we started in March, it was all a new concept to be doing everything like over a video, but the resources of Zoom and FaceTime are actually more effective than you'd think.

- Students can make the most of online learning by, I guess being understanding and understanding that it's hard for the teachers too.

Like I was just talking to teachers that I was friends with and they were just saying that it's really hard for them too, and when kids aren't cooperative, it's really hard for them.

So I guess just try and roll with the punches, which is kind of annoying to say, because a lot of kids don't learn well that way.

So, you can't put that much pressure on them, but I guess just the most students can do is be open-minded.

- We are just gonna have to help each other out through it.

Like if we have questions, make a group chat and text and ask if anybody needs help.

Or if anybody wants to talk about a project or an upcoming test, or we're just going to have to figure it out on our own.

- We're all in this together.

We're all in the same boat, virtual learning.

You feel like you're alone when you're doing it.

- Like, even if you're not close to your peers, there's still this idea of like we're in this together and we're going through the same thing.

When you're walking in the hallway to class, you feel like you're in it together.

And of course that won't be happening if we do a hundred percent online school.

- Even if it's a fewer people than my class, I think I'll still enjoy being in a classroom with my peers.

It's more of a community thing for me.

- At the end of the day school is still a family.

In that I feel as though that family piece kind of went missing throughout the whole virtual learning.

- My plan wasn't to attend college, especially my dream college online, but I'm happy that I'm still getting education.

- I just hope that we don't stay the whole time just doing virtual work and hope this COVID is done by the time when we go back to school.

- [Maizy] We've heard the pros and cons of virtual learning from students across the tri-state area.

- [Denzel] Although our perspectives varied, the general consensus is that we're grateful for the chance to continue our education.

- [Maizy] Though it may be flawed, we as a community are in this together and we'll strive to make the best of this once in a lifetime experience.

- [Denzel] This has been WHYY interns Denzel Massaley.

- [Maizy] And Maizy Mennuti.

- [Denzel] Thanks for watching.

(markers swooping) (gentle rock music) - I'm Christina and I'm a junior in high school.

- I'm Nick and I'm in 11th grade.

- My name is Abby and I am a senior in high school.

- Hi, I'm Matt and I'm in 11th grade.

- My name is Anna and I'm in ninth grade.

- [Interviewer] How are you today?

- I'm doing good.

- I'm feeling okay because it's nice out, but usually I'm feeling a little down, especially when it's raining.

I'm feeling a little like overwhelmed I would say, not really, not really sad, but more just kind of in shock almost.

- Not, lonely isn't the right word for it, but just like isolated, like apart is the best word I can think of to describe it.

- I think it depends on the day.

Like some days I'm really energetic and creative and then other days I just kind of lay there and do nothing, but I've been okay, been fine.

- The transition from public school to online learning personally, wasn't that hard because a lot of what we were doing in school already was online and in Google classroom.

- It was really just picking up where we left off.

So it was there wasn't a whole lot of difference really, it was just a different place that I was doing it.

- What's going well is the teachers, I think they're doing a good job with what they were given, given that they're not trained to do remote learning.

- Zoom calls work really well.

I think that provides the most realistic interaction between teacher and the classroom.

- At first, they were kind of awkward and no one knew what to do but now I think that there's a better communication between the teachers and the students.

And I think that it gives people a sense of social interaction which a lot of people are missing right now.

So the Zoom sessions have been good.

- What's not going well, is how long it is every day.

Cause sometimes I finished before 12:00 and other days I'm working till like 09:00 at night.

It just doesn't make sense.

- It's a little more relaxed, but it's also, I'm not learning as much at all.

I'm really not like absorbing it.

- I think a lot of students blame the teachers, even though they are going through the same thing, transitioning from public school to online school.

But I think that's definitely improved as people are realizing not to direct their anger or disappointment towards everyone else rather than just the situation in general.

- When I found out that we weren't going back to school, I cried and I was really upset and I still don't think it's completely processed, but my mom texted me, asked me if I was all right and I kind of said no but I was just working online and still trying to get through the day.

But yeah, I was upset.

- I kind of haven't really processed it yet.

And I kind of feel like it's still could open if something really good happens.

I don't know why I'm optimistic like that.

- I didn't want to believe it, but I kind of expected it for a while just because of watching how other states have done it.

But at the same time it was still like, wow, this is, this is real.

We're really not going back to school.

It's really that bad.

- I just hope it's not like the end, end.

I just think that's cause I can't process that it actually is.

- I don't think my feelings towards my future have changed that much given I'm only a freshman.

So I'm not worrying about college or anything like that.

- I've never really considered medicine as a career path.

Like people would like mentioned it to me, but I've never really said, no, I want to do it.

But now looking at what the doctors and nurses are doing and like how important their role is, I've changed my mind a little bit and I'm definitely considering that as a possible, you know, when I go to college or whatever, that it's maybe what I want to do.

- I've been spending a lot more time being creative instead of the like 20 minutes I can find when I'm not super busy during regular life.

So I realized that that's kind of what I want to do is do more creative stuff in the future.

I think that was kind of helpful, especially this time of my life.

- Yeah, I just think it's a weird time to be a student because obviously my problems aren't the biggest right now, but there's sometimes a little bit of a lack of empathy I think, towards students.

Is that stupid to say?

- [Interviewer] I don't know.

- I feel like it's easy for people to just kind of dismiss the problems of like, oh, they're teenagers, but it really is big, like monumental moments we're missing.

- The biggest struggle for me maybe, was keeping track of my schoolwork and having the motivation to actually do it.

But I think you just need to find something that like really motivates you and keep doing what you're supposed to be doing and keep doing it on time.

- [Interviewer] Time!

- Thanks!

- [Interviewer] Christina's crying.

- [Christina] I'm not crying.

- Why are you crying?

- [Christina] I'm not crying.

- My message is just be thankful, be healthy, stay home.

Stay home, period.

Because I want to go to Harry Styles in June.

(laughing) - [Interviewer] All right, anything else you want to say?

Just about being a student during this time or anything like that?

No?

- I'm good.

- [Interviewer] Bye guys.

(markers swooping) - My name is Maxine.

Growing up I always had a lot of pets.

A large goldfish, a parakeet named Crackers, rabbits, cats, one in particular named Gilbert that we walked on a leash like a dog and even mice.

When I got to middle school, my English teacher, seeing how much I loved animals, suggested that I attend Saul Agricultural High School where I could learn more about them and the environment.

When I started school at Saul, I didn't have a focus on a particular major.

However, one of my teachers named Ms. Simmons would let me clean and the tarantula tank whenever I finished work early.

I thought I would be scared, but it wasn't that bad and I learned to love it.

Ms. Simmons then made a deal with me that if I joined Natural Resource Management, environmental major, she would buy me a NAR tarantula after the one I took care of, sadly passed away.

And since she'll know, I'll take good care of it, I'll be able to keep it once I graduate.

However, when the pandemic hit, my school needed people to take care of some animals and of course I wanted to take Luchea home.

Ms. Simmons brought her to my house and she's been with me ever since.

My dad once told me, "If you ever have animals around you, you are never alone."

And during this time with the coronavirus it is great to have a furry friend around.

(markers swooping) (upbeat rock music) - I hope you enjoyed the show.

I want to thank our young creators for sharing their stories with us today and give a special shout out to all the teachers and instructors who inspire these young storytellers.

Thanks for watching Young Creators Studio.

To watch past episodes, head to our website.

I'm Olivia and I'll see you next week.

(upbeat rock music)