Marginalized older adults are highly vulnerable to COVID-19 due to social isolation and physical and functional limitations. Despite these stressors, they appear to be resilient by leveraging individual, community, and societal resources. This study conducted in-depth interviews with marginalized older adults to understand how COVID-19 affected their mobility and daily lives. We also identified different levels of protective factors affecting their resiliency to pandemic stressors. COVID-19 influenced not only the physical health but also the mental health of older adults. However, they overcame adversity by using technology to continue daily activities, exchanging informal support with family and neighbors, relying on formal support from community organizations, and keeping themselves physically active in their neighborhoods. Our findings suggest a holistic approach to enhance the resilience of older adults during an unprecedented event.

We have developed a complete model of monitoring patients at regular intervals through an interconnected network among the doctors, nurses and patients with a view to minimizing the workload of the doctors and nurses, reducing the chances of medical professionals being infected by COVID-19 type of contagious disease and increasing the overall efficiency of patient monitoring in hospitals. Bio-medical sensors interfaced with microcontroller are used to collect the data of heart beat rate, body temperature and body movement to get an overview of the present health condition of the patient. The recorded data are stored in an excel file and updated automatically to the internet via OneDrive in every 30 seconds. In case of any large deviation from the normal condition, an automated alarm system will notify the assigned doctor about the condition of the patient. A medication reminder system is added in our designed android app to notify the patient to take the medicine prescribed by the doctor at proper time. The patient can also call the nurse in case of emergency and there is also scope for the patient to control the position of the bed according to his comfort. The level of saline or blood injected into the vein of the patient can also be monitored in our system to inform the nurse at the time of being finished.

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With K-12 students from diverse social and cultural backgrounds in the classroom today, it is crucial to develop a more inclusive and socially diverse curriculum, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics. Transportation in particular is a topic that can relate to people’s culture and can be a suitable medium to introduce diversity and inclusion in STEM fields. Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a technique that can help connect students’ cultures, languages, and life experiences with their learning. Despite the known benefits of CRT, this strategy had not been adequately implemented in transportation education because of the limited awareness and knowledge of educators. This research contributes to the literature by investigating the current state of knowledge, awareness, and resources present in transportation pedagogy and investigates the feasibility of transportation as a suitable topic to incorporate culturally responsive learning strategies through surveys and workshops with pre-service science teachers and the future transportation workforce. Five key elements emerged from the analysis. First, the existing lack of diversity in STEM curriculum started to change to be inclusive. Second, teachers’ awareness and preparation are crucial for creating quality educational materials. Third, curriculum topics that can relate to cultural components in daily living enhance social diversity in transportation education. Therefore, fourth, transportation can be a good curriculum topic and, fifth, barriers including the difficulty of incorporating many cultural components, privacy, and legal issues still exist. The identified gaps and highlighted areas can contribute to the current state of knowledge and practice of CRT in STEM and transportation pedagogy.