A student asks a question at the event held in Shanghai on Tuesday. Photo: Chen Xia/GT

For Wu Fan, a medic from Shanghai's expert coronavirus treatment team, summer vacation homework is not a burden, but an interest, according to an event held that Wu attended in Shanghai on Tuesday, which was aimed at inspiring young students from around China to have the courage to question and challenge exciting new topics during the upcoming two-month summer holiday.

Wu, also an associate dean at Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, assigned students from around the country with a specific homework, encouraging them to explore COVID-19's origins. For most students, this assignment is not strictly scientific, Wu said, adding that students can choose any methods they wish to explore the problem, allowing students to "open their minds."

Wu Fan delivers a speech at the event held in Shanghai on Tuesday. Photo: Chen Xia/GT

The event, invited 18 mentors and their team members to give homework assignments to students from around the country, with topics from science, art, and humanities subjects. Practice is also one scope.

Shanghai East Hospital's international rescue team assigned students with a homework that included writing down their personal review after reading the book of memory of the life in the makeshift fangcang hospitals used to combat the coronavirus in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province.

Students nationwide can submit their homework via an app from July 1 to August 20. Since 2013, the event has designed 205 homework assignments covering different subjects, attracting nearly 400,000 students nationwide to participate in the activity.