The current COVID-19 pandemic raises reflection on the new roles of science education in citizen education in a world characterized by civilization risks, derived from the current socioeconomic development. This specific type of risk is treated as a manufactured risk as proposed by the sociologist Ulrich Beck. In this paper, we report a document analysis starting from Beck's risk society theory, followed by notions of reflexive modernity, risk perception, and the Cynefin decision-making model for complex problems. COVID-19 pandemic is characterized as a manufactured risk. We state that students are unable to deal with manufactured risk because of the type of problems they are usually prepared to solve at school and the limited risk perception they have. In order to acquire better science education, we propose the integration of wicked problems in science programs alongside the use of a multidimensional schema, the so-called amplified risk perception space, a tool to locate students' risk perception. We hope to contribute to prepare citizens for a world of global and complex events, such as the current pandemic.

As immunology continues to evolve, many educational methods have found difficulty in conveying the degree of complexity inherent in its basic principles. Today, the teaching-learning process in such areas has been improved with tools such as educational software. This article introduces "Virtual Immunology," a software program available free of charge in Portuguese and English, which can be used by teachers and students in physiology, immunology, and cellular biology classes. We discuss the development of the initial two modules: "Organs and Lymphoid Tissues" and "Inflammation" and the use of interactive activities to provide microscopic and macroscopic understanding in immunology. Students, both graduate and undergraduate, were questioned along with university level professors about the quality of the software and intuitiveness of use, facility of navigation, and aesthetic organization using a Likert scale. An overwhelmingly satisfactory result was obtained with both students and immunology teachers. Programs such as "Virtual Immunology" are offering more interactive, multimedia approaches to complex scientific principles that increase student motivation, interest, and comprehension.

The current COVID-19 pandemic raises reflection on the new roles of science education in citizen education in a world characterized by civilization risks, derived from the socioeconomic development. This specific type of risk is treated as manufactured risk as proposed by the sociologist Ulrich Beck. In this work, we report a document analysis starting from Beck's risk society theory, followed by notions of reflexive modernity, risk perception and the Cynefin decision making model for complex problems. COVID-19 pandemic is characterized as a manufactured risk and we present features of it. We state that students are unable to deal with manufactured risk because of the type of problems they are usually prepared to solve at school and the limited risk perception they have. In order to acquire a better science education, we propose the integration of wicked problems in science programs alongside the use of a multidimensional schema, so-called amplified risk perception space, a tool to locate students' risk perception. We hope to contribute to prepare citizens for a world of global and complex events, such as the current pandemic.

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