Hunter College High School Twins Breathe New Life Into Remote Learning, Create Viral Biology Lab Videos
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Here is an inspiring story about a brother and sister from East Harlem who while stuck in the rut of remote learning decided to create science lab videos to educate and entertain their classmates.
Only now the videos are being used by high schools and colleges all around the world, CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported Tuesday.
Masked, gloves on, and tools at the ready, 17-year-old twins Jaeah and Jae Kim are dissecting the boredom out of remote learning.
"We do a lot of things together, from like science fair projects together and, like, competitions together and things like that," Jae Kim said.
When asked if the siblings have a close relationship, Jae said with a laugh, "It's like a business relationship."
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The Kims, seniors at Hunter College High School, have made it their business to breathe new life into biology classes, after finding themselves and their classmates disconnecting from their virtual science labs.
"We kind of had to like just make due with really blurry pictures on a slide show and I was like, that's clearly not really working out. That's not gonna engage other students at all," Jaeah said.
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So she recruited her twin to make dissection videos to keep students interested and engaged.
Their first video, of a worm dissection, was big hit at their school. So, they gave themselves the name "Oh Worm!' and produced more videos, including toads, a fetal pig, and sea urchins and uploaded them to YouTube.
"We got a bunch of positive feedback from teachers saying that they really needed this and it was really great for them to use it," Jaeah said.
Now, more than 500 schools, including high schools and colleges in 47 states and 42 countries, are using the videos for their students.
"We have people from the UK, Australia, like China," Jae said.
READ MORE: Remote Learning Still A Struggle For Students, Parents 1 Year Since New York City Schools Shut Down
More than 2,000 people subscribe to their YouTube channel, and thanks to the support of their parents, they bought a box filled with specimens for future videos.
"At first, I was reluctant. Now, I'm very proud of how passionate they are," their mother said.
"I think it's really great that there was a need and we were able to fill it," Jaeah added.
Filling a need without a profit, except for the reward of knowing they helped students love learning again.
