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MedStart 2012
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MedStart Summer Camp 2012 applications are now available at www.mtahec.org. Application deadline is March 16, 2012. |
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| Issue: # 31 |
February /2012 |
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Connecting Students to Health Careers
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Greetings!
 Happy Valentines Day!!
When the medical field is mentioned many direct their attention straight toward medical doctors. This is a wonderful career but there is also many other options in the health professional world that are not advertised as regularly. Informing students about every health care opportunity will prove rewarding, and increase health care professionals in Montana. Talk to your students about health careers! Keep them informed! |
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FREE Subscription to CTE Resources: |
February is Career and Technical Education Month. To celebrate, USA TODAY Education is offering teachers free access to its Future Forward (CTE) program during the month of February. Explore the program by logging in with username (USATEACHER) and password (FEBFREE). Visit http://usatodayeducate.com/wordpress/index.php/reading-for-career-and-technical-education/
This online curriculum program is designed as a "grab and go" reading solution for career and technical educators who would like to enhance their students' reading comprehension and higher-order thinking skills while seamlessly teaching their course content. These lessons will work within any career cluster and the assessments and reprint articles are specifically categorized by career cluster for real-world support of your course content.
Please take advantage of this offer from USA Today
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Human Anatomy and Physiology: |
Here are a couple links to some exciting web sites to help students study anatomy and physiology, and also help teachers with lesson plans. Here is one of the self tests that is offered through the links below. A great way for studens to check their progress in learning the information in class. Also a great diagram for a quiz or test. There are many other useful self tests, games, quizes and videos on these links. There are timed tests and multiplayer games also to actively engage students.
Web Anatomy and Physiology
Get Body Smart |
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MedStart Summer Camp |
MedStart Summer Camp 2012 - Applications Now Available!
MedStart Summer Camp is an AHEC funded program designed to encourage current sophomore and junior high school students to pursue their interest in a variety of healthcare careers. AHEC focuses on accepting students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, low-income families, rural areas, minorities, or will be first in their family to attend college. The aim of MedStart is to provide students who may not otherwise have the opportunity a chance to further explore healthcare careers, learn about college life, and realize it is possible to pursue higher education. Students often think of healthcare as including only "doctors and nurses" and MedStart tries to break down that stereotype by educating students on the large variety of high skill, high paid, high demand careers available in the healthcare industry. MedStart is completely free of charge to the students.
MedStart is a week long program and offers many opportunities to students. Curriculum sessions during the week included sheep heart dissection, blood typing, suturing on pig's feet, job shadowing, and taking blood pressures.  College Support sessions included a financial aid presentation, a current health profession student panel, and a campus tour. Recreation and Social sessions can include things such as bowling, hiking, museum trips, Lewis and Clark Caverns, rafting trips, and a Zoo Montana tour. After camp each regional AHEC office matches the MedStart student with a healthcare professional from their hometown in the hopes of establishing a mentor/mentee relationship and continuing the job shadowing process.
There will be 4 camps during the summer of 2012:
- Billings - MSU-B Campus: June 24th-29th, 2012
- Missoula - U of M Campus: June 24th-29th, 2012
- Bozeman - MSU Campus: June 24th-30th, 2012
- Great Falls - University of Great Fallls Campus: July 8th-13th, 2012
On the application students have the option to rank the above 4 camps in order of preference. The 2012 MedStart application deadline will be March 16, 2012. One hundred ten total students will be accepted state-wide.
For more information, please contact Bergen Morehouse, South Central Montana AHEC, Assistant Director 406.683.2790 or bergen@mtha.org
www.mtahec.org |
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In-A-Box On the Move |
One of the WMT-AHEC Pipeline Programs, In-A-Box, is even more mobile this year thanks to generous in-kind services provided by the Missoula County Public Library and Missoula Children's Theatre. Five In-A-Box science curriculum trunks ("Brain," "Eye," "Ear," "Bones & Muscles," and "Guts") designed for 4-8 grades, are made available for use - free of charge - to all western Montana schools. Getting the trunks to the schools presented a challenge, until Martha Robertson, K-12 Program Coordinator, asked 2 local organizations to collaborate on the In-A-Box program. "We wanted to make sure there was no cost incurred by either schools or overly generous teachers-postage for shipment of the 17"X24" trunks can add up." Missoula County Public Library unveiled their new W.O.W. internet access bus in September, and library director, Honore Bray, and reference librarian, Pam Harrington, were all too willing to help out. The W.O.W. bus travels throughout Missoula County. How, then, to get trunks all the way to Lincoln or Flathead counties? The Little Red Trucks, vehicles used by Missoula Children's Theatre, travel to over 100 Montana schools, during the school year. Teri Erlander, MCT International & Public Relations Manager, presented the WMT-AHEC proposal to her board, and now In-A-Box trunks can travel as far as Troy, MT with materials for "The Little Mermaid."
For more information about the series, please refer to the Cirriculum In A Box section below. |
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Education Spotlight: Dietetics/Nutrition
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"You are what you eat."
Scientific studies are proving that the food we eat has a significant impact on our health. Changes in diet can help prevent or control many health problems, including obesity, diabetes, and certain risk factors for cancer and heart disease.
Dietetics is the health field that focuses on the interaction between nutrition and health. Dietitians and dietetic technicians design "nutrition therapies" that help the body use the natural nutrients and properties in food to protect against disease and promote health.
The field of dietetics has a strong emphasis on public health, and a commitment to educating all Americans about the importance of making proper dietary choices. Dietitians who work in facilities preparing food strive to develop menus and recipes that are healthful, tasty and cost-effective.
Professionals in the field of dietetics often focus their efforts on specific populations, facilities or initiatives, including:
- Designing individual nutritional therapies to address specific health issues, such as overweight, diabetes or hypertension
- Developing facility-wide nutrition programs for health care, educational, correctional and other institutions
- Increasing public awareness of proper nutritional standards and habits
- Improving the accuracy and comprehension of food labels
- Ensuring the safety of our food supply
- Researching how changes in diet (such as reducing salt intake) affect health (by reducing blood pressure)
- Working with food manufacturers to improve the nutritional quality of prepared foods
Growing public interest in "taking control" of one's health is likely to improve employment prospects for dietetics professionals who can design healthy eating programs. The growing and aging population will also increase demand for accurate nutrition information and plans.
Dietetics/Nutrition degrees are available in Montana at the following schools:
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| Curriculum In A Box |
Brains, Guts, Eyes, Ear, Muscles and Bones...Oh My!
 The Montana AHECs (Area Health Education Centers) have 5 Curriculum Boxes available for loan to educators around the state. These boxes are FREE of charge and contain a wealth of resources and lessons related to the human body, body systems, health, diseases and prevention, and health careers. The trunks are designed for grades 4 - 8, but the materials and lessons are easily adaptable for older and younger students. These boxes are approved by OPI to meet content standards and can be used by teachers, counselors, administrators and/or parents. Each Curriculum Box is focused on a different topic: Eye, Ear, Brain, Guts, and Bones & Muscles. Typically boxes are loaned out for a 3 week period, but this can be adjusted as needed.
Each box contains:
- Teacher's Guide
- Anatomical Model (of the ear, eye, brain, etc.)
- Supplementary resource list (websites, other books, research ideas)
- Ambassador's Guide (for healthcare practitioners participating in or leading activity)
- A Bill Nye DVD related to the topic (as a stage-setter, if desired)
- 4th - 8th grade level appropriate resource books
- A supplementary curriculum from the NSF (if available related to the topic)
- Other supplementary materials
- Stations:
- Each Trunks materials are structured in five clear and easy-to-use stations which students can complete in small groups or as a whole class. Each station includes "Student Station Notes" (one-page of guiding questions for each station, so that students can complete the activities independently.)
Stations included in each Trunk:
- Explore Anatomy station (using resources like posters, models, or tools (otoscope, for example), answer anatomy questions based on close observation
- Form & Function station (activity varies but is usually a hands-on investigation of functions of the system)--i.e., build a digestive system model, put the parts of the ear in order...)
- Be the Practitioner - a role play requiring teamwork among several professions to diagnose and treat a hypothetical patient
- Two other stations, varies by trunk
Please contact your regional AHEC for more information or visit: http://mtahec_inabox.airset.com/
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Medical Stimulation for Middle School Students:
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Are you a problem solver?
Are you a solution seeker?
Do you find the medical field fascinating?
If you answered "YES" to any of the questions above, then this D.O.S.E Project may be just right for you!
This real world project is a medical simulation called
D.O.S.E
Diagnosis of Symptoms and Experiences.
Throughout this project, students work in pairs or small groups, assuming the roles of medical doctors treating a patient with an undiagnosed ailment. To diagnose a patient's problem, the team of doctors conducts a background interview and completes a medical questionnaire that leads to the initial hypothesis about the patient's problem. The team then engages in further research refining or creating a new hypothesis until the research confirms a specific diagnosis. The project concludes with all student teams explaining their cases through a presentation. The culminating activity will include a tour of a local medical facility.
The project described above will be taking place at Meadow Hill Middle School from February 6th to February 24th.
If you are interested in working with 8th grade students as a facilitator in this project, please email Jan Petritz at jpetritz@mcps.k12.mt.us or
Shirley Lindburg at salindburg@mcps.k12.mt.us.
Students will meet Monday through Friday from 2:55-3:25pm
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Upcoming REACH Camps:
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Eastern MT AHEC
- Hardin - January 25th
- Lewistown - February 15th
- Columbus - March 28th
- Baker- April 25th
Western MT AHEC
- Feb. 29th, at Providence Saint Patrick Hospital, Missoula.
- Community Medical Center (date TBD)
- Clark Fork Valley Hospital (date TBD)
South Central MT AHEC
- May 1st at Deer Lodge Medical Center
- May 3rd at Broadwater Health Center
North Central MT AHEC
- Teton and Toole counties are planning REACH camps for
April
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Career Spotlight: Podiatrist | |
Podiatric medicine is a branch of the medical sciences devoted to the study of human movement, with the medical care of the foot and ankle as its primary focus. A doctor of podiatric medicine is to the foot what a dentist is to the mouth or an ophthalmologist to the eye - a specialist who has undergone lengthy, thorough study to become uniquely well-qualified to treat a specific part of the body.
A Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM) specializes in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of foot disorders, diseases and injuries. A DPM makes independent judgments and performs or orders all necessary diagnostic tests. They perform surgery; administer medications, including DEA-restricted medications; and prescribe physical therapy regimens.
DPMs often detect serious health problems that may otherwise go unnoticed, because a number of diseases manifest first through symptoms of the lower extremities (i.e., diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, or kidney disease). Podiatric physicians are educated in state-of-the-art techniques involving surgery, orthopedics, dermatology, physical medicine and rehabilitation.
Podiatrists work in general or group practices and are free to develop a practice focus such as pediatrics, geriatrics, or sports medicine. In addition to private practice, they serve on the staffs of hospitals and long-term care facilities, on the faculties of schools of medicine and nursing, in the armed forces as commissioned officers, in the U.S. Public Health Service, and in municipal health departments. Possible career settings also include foot clinics associated with hospitals in major urban areas or small rural towns.
In general, the practice of podiatric medicine lends itself to flexible hours and is therefore comfortable for individuals who want time for family, friends and other involvements that characterize a balanced lifestyle. The work hours of a podiatric physician can vary from 30 to 60 hours a week. Podiatrists in private practice can set their own hours.
Text courtesy of explorehealthcareers.org:
Explore Health Careers
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AHEC - The Basics
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This E-News is being sent to you by the Montana Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) in order to open a dialogue among educators about Health Science Education for K-12 students of Montana. Through this newsletter we intend to:
1) build a shared resource of activities, materials, and lesson plans to draw on in teaching the health sciences
2) highlight the cross-curriculum nature of the health sciences
3) build an interest in and awareness of health career paths for students in the state of Montana
Please contact us with your comments, ideas, questions or projects you'd like to see highlighted in future issues of this e-newsletter. And thank you for the work you do every day to inspire and support Montana kids!
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Sincerely,
Montana AHECs (Area Health Education Centers)
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