Photo By Rebecca Perron | 170407-N-GM597-130 Portsmouth, Va. (April 7, 2017) Students from Park View Elementary...... read more read more
More than a dozen staff members from Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) participated in Career Day at Park View Elementary School in Portsmouth on April 7 by setting up three interactive Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)-related stations in the school’s science lab.
With more than 20 groups setting up stations throughout the school, six classes total – one class from grades first through sixth – were selected to experience the NMCP’s presentation. Each class had 30 minutes in the lab. The students were divided into three groups and spent 10 minutes at each station. They learned about the use of mannequins in medical simulation, viruses and the laboratory, and the Navy as a career.
“Career Day gives us the chance to show the kids what we can do to provide health care and what some of those jobs are in this field,” said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (SW) John Buxton, leading petty officer of the Internal Medicine department. “It’s exciting to see the kids get animated and entertained by the thought that there are options in the Navy and in medicine.
Buxton and other corpsmen at the simulation station demonstrated how computers are able to control the movements and speech of the mannequins, as well as how the interior components simulate internal organs.
It’s exciting to see them so excited with they touch the mannequin as it does lifelike things,” said Buxton, who works with the mannequins while teaching the HM First course. “When they hold the baby, or they feel the mannequin’s pulse or see it breathe, their eyes light up.”
To give them an understanding of the importance of simulation, the corpsmen asked the students, “would you rather have a doctor give a shot or perform surgery for the first time on you, or on the mannequin?”
Nicole Miller, a fourth grade teacher of Virginia Studies, said her students were extremely engaged and interested, especially in the simulation mannequins.
“They have learned some anatomy in science this year, and I know a lot of them are interested in the military,” Miller said. “Seeing them use what they have learned in science is exciting. We’ve talked about the Navy in Virginia studies when we cover products and industries for the coastal plain. And we also talk about the bodies of water in the area, so they are very interested. This is what they were looking forward to coming to the most today. They kept asking ‘when are we going to the Navy?’”
At the laboratory station, Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Michael Murphy from the histology laboratory, and Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Donnie Wright from radiology taught the kids about germs and how they can make them sick. Murphy said that when he first heard about career day, he knew the laboratory would be a perfect fit.
“When I think of science and technology, I think of the laboratory and we have things that I thought would be interesting for the kids,” Murphy said. “We have lab coats, gloves and items for them to look at under the microscope. There’s a dandelion with bugs on it, wood chips, a leaf that shows the chloroplast inside so they can see why it turns green, as well as some degraded plants so they can see decomposition. The neat thing about this microscope is anything can be put under it.”
Each student took a turn looking at object under the microscope. Some were amazed at what they saw, while others were a little surprised by the bugs.
Murphy said they tapered the learning curve to be age appropriate and hoped they could spark their interest in joining the Navy or the medical field.
“We also have handouts with common germs and viruses on it so we can talk about the importance of washing their hands and hygiene,” Murphy said. “It has the name of the viruses on it and they can color the sheets.”
Wright was impressed with the students’ responses to questions and their engagement.
“When we asked them if they ever had food poisoning, they knew about salmonella, which is pretty interesting with this age group,” Wright said. “And when we asked them to pronounce the different viruses, they knew how. We have very smart, very curious groups of students.”
At the last station, students got a taste of Navy life in the fleet by watching a video and a PowerPoint presentation that showed different aspects of the Navy and what types of jobs are available, as well as some items someone would see on a ship.
“I helped set up the Navy as a career part, and thought it would be fun to bring items that I use in my job as a boatswain’s mate,” said Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Costa Dumervil, a Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program counselor at NMCP. “I brought some rope to talk about knot typing and line handling and a pipe to show some of the calls we make on the ship. We also brought coloring pages, and pencils, Frisbees, lanyards and cups to pass out.”
Dumervil and several others at this station talked about the different jobs they have and what it’s like to be stationed on a ship. They also asked the kids trivia questions to reinforce the information they had presented.
Melissa Jefferson, who teaches science and social studies to sixth graders, said the visit by NMCP was important for her students.
“They really need something like this because they may not realize what careers are available to them after school,” Jefferson said. “It helps them to get some idea of what they want to do in the future.”
NMCP has partnered with Park View Elementary School through the Navy’s Adopt-a-School program. Throughout the year, NMCP staff assists at school events such as Career Day and the science fair, and works with teachers and students individually in the classroom.
| Date Taken: | 04.07.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 04.11.2017 13:36 |
| Story ID: | 229999 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 111 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NMCP Emphasizes STEM during Career Day at Adopted Elementary School, by Rebecca Perron, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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