On Oct. 22, a select group of seniors from the Medical Interventions class had the opportunity to participate in a crime lab at Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas. During their visit, MI students were shown the advanced processes and technologies used by professionals in forensic investigations.
The teachers within the school’s Biomedical Science program demonstrate their dedication to preparing students for careers in the medical field through immersion activities, specifically recently in the Medical Interventions (MI) job shadow.
Even though parts of the lab had to be kept classified from the public eye, student participants such as senior Joseph Schmidt shared that they found the trip interesting and informative. Schmidt expresses that he has found a deep interest while getting involved in the Health Sciences Academic Community.
This course focuses on understanding how the human body functions and the many treatments and procedures used within the medical field. During the field trip, students were exposed to many different components of a crime lab.
Senior Catherine O’Connor, another MI student, shared her experience with unfolding layers of a procedure in the lab.
“Although we couldn’t see much of the lab, I thought it was cool to realize how many steps go into charging a criminal in a case,” O’Connor said.
For other Biomed students, such as senior Jane Werner, the amount of state-authorized latent fingerprints, firearms and analyzed evidence stood out to her.
“It was super cool to see the state of Kansas’ lab where almost everything gets sent to,” Werner said. “I want to go into the medical field, so seeing the behind-the-scenes of it all got me to understand what it would actually be like.”
Science Department Chair Mary Summers leads many of the prerequisite Biomedical science classes. She shared that her passion for teaching science classes stems from the hands-on experiences offered to students through the Impact program. This program is a way that the school provides project-based learning to students with specific interests.
Medical Interventions is the third PLTW Biomedical class in the Impact medical pathway. Students apply techniques that were introduced in the first two classes to experiment with how the concepts transfer into the real world with examples of illnesses and diseases.
Summers explained the scenario that the class examined in the lab.
“The class follows an imaginary family who experiences Meningitis, cancer, hearing loss and other diseases,” Summers said.
According to Biomed student senior Michaela Wilcox, her enthusiasm for the experiences that the Biomedical track offers that navigates her through potential occupation options.
“I want to go into the medical field so that I get to be able to learn more about the human body and the different processes that diseases can affect,” Wilcox said. “How they are being treated is great knowledge to have.”
As the seniors advance in their class, they will continue participating in activities such as working through crime scenes, analyzing fingerprints, blood typing and dissections so that they are prepared for more future field trips.
Summers expresses how taking classes that provide authentic experiences can help narrow down where student interests may lie after high school.
“Before these classes were offered, many students were asking about jobs and education in the healthcare field,” Summers said. “Now that we offer these classes, students have the chance to get hands-on experience in the field of science. Some students realize this is not at all what they are interested in, while others realize that they are interested in working in science someday.”
