{"id":12886,"date":"2011-09-01T04:44:20","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T09:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=12886"},"modified":"2011-09-01T04:44:20","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T09:44:20","slug":"biomedical-program-begins-with-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/09\/01\/biomedical-program-begins-with-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Biomedical program begins with mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

Van Wert High School\u2019s new biomedical program took a page from the CSI television franchise this week. Students in the class, which is new to Van Wert High School this year, were presented with a medical mystery when they arrived for class on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Students in Van Wert High School's new biomedical program look over a "dead woman" found in their class on Tuesday morning. (photos by Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The kids found a dead body on the floor of the classroom when they came to class and will now have to find out what happened to the woman — actually a medical mannequin — named \u201cAnna Garcia.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the class, teacher Chuck Rollins talked Jefferson Elementary Principal Kevin Gehres and Vantage Adult Education instructor Jackie Brandt, both volunteer Emergency Medical Technicians, to come in and do CPR on \u201cAnna\u201d and also show students how a real medical emergency would be handled by first-responders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that we needed to get a \u2018wow\u2019 factor and get these kids\u2019 attention,\u201d Rollins said, adding that he knew Gehres was an EMT from his wife, who also works at Jefferson.<\/p>\n

Rollins explained that students would research \u201cAnna\u2019s\u201d case throughout the coming school year. \u201cThe entire first-year curriculum is all about finding out how \u2018Anna Garcia\u2019 died,\u201d Rollins said. \u201cThey (students) will go and eliminate some possibilities (and) do some self-directed research\u201d to find out the actual cause of death, using clues that were at the scene, as well as information students find on the Internet and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The class is the first for the new biomedical program at VWHS. Eventually, there will be four high school-level courses, and Superintendent Ken Amstutz has also said there is a possibility of expanding it into the middle school in the future.<\/p>\n

The biomedical class is also a component of the district\u2019s Project Lead the Way curriculum, which also includes an engineering program taught by Bob Spath. It\u2019s also indicative of Van Wert City Schools\u2019 increasing focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and project-based education, in partnership with Vantage Career Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jefferson Elementary Principal Kevin Gehres (right) and EMT instructor Jackie Brandt show students what first-responders do when they are faced with a medical emergency while teacher Chuck Rollins looks on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe focus of those programs is teamwork, meeting deadlines and learning to think critically and solving problems for themselves,\u201d he noted. \u201cOne of the coolest part of this program is we don\u2019t give them answers, they have to figure it out. They have to be creative and do something on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said the Project Lead the Way programs would fit in well with the New Tech High School program that Van Wert City Schools would be implementing over the next year or so, thanks to a $750,000 federal Race to the Top grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New Tech High School and Project Lead the Way go hand in hand,\u201d Rollins explained. \u201cThey\u2019re really two of the same animal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rollins said one of the other main focuses of the new biomedical program is to expose students to the various careers available in that field and to give them an idea of what it takes to work in those careers. Students will be exposed to 44 careers in biomedical science in the first year alone, he noted, and approximately 150 different jobs over the four-year curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program goes into the careers in some detail: What kind of schooling is needed, what does it pay, if you do it full-time,\u201d Rollins said, adding that the students would be exposed to just about every job there is in biomedical science by the time they\u2019re seniors.<\/p>\n

Another plus for the program is that students can also purchase up to 12 semester hours of college credit at greatly discounted rates if they take a test at the end of each course and pass with a score of 80 percent or higher.<\/p>\n

Rollins said he is also excited about the quality of the curriculum that comes with the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe curriculum is just very brilliantly conducted and set up,\u201d Rollins said. \u201cI\u2019ve been so impressed with how interesting they\u2019ve made everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like kids are fascinated by CSI on TV, that\u2019s what the whole first year is: basically CSI,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In addition, he likes the fact that the program focuses on project-based learning instead of more traditional memorization learning. \u201cIt\u2019s not about me lecturing, it\u2019s about kids doing,\u201d Rollins said.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, he noted, the curriculum is already in place and is well respected nationwide. \u201cOne of the hardest things for a teacher to do is develop a curriculum that engages students and that has already been done here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Van Wert High School\u2019s new biomedical program took a page from the CSI television franchise this week. Students in the class, which is new to Van Wert High School this year, were presented with a medical mystery when they arrived for class on Tuesday. The kids found a dead body on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-05 20:02:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}