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MedStart 2012
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MedStart Summer Camp 2012 applications are available at www.mtahec.org. Application deadline is March 16, 2012. |
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Connecting Students to Health Careers
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Greetings!
 Spring is in the air!
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Adams |
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GridClub |
GridClub is a website to inspire children!
Used in more than 4,000 schools GridClub is one of the most popular learning websites because of its innovative design and fun approach to learning. It is very flexible, being suitable for use on PCs, Macs, Laptops, and whiteboards.
Its main use is with 5 to 12 year olds in schools, libraries, outside learning environments, homes, and anywhere else where there is a computer connected to the internet!
The website has been recently re-designed with an enhanced Teacher Zone. This sets out the full set of resources by subject and strand, according to country. Every activity is underpinned by curriculum links.
GridClub |
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MedStart Summer Camp |
MedStart Summer Camp 2012 -
Application deadline is coming up soon!
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 24-29, 2012
- Missoula - U of M Campus: June 24-29, 2012
- Bozeman - MSU Campus: June 24-30, 2012
- Great Falls - University of GF Campus: July 8-13, 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. 110 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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Health Science New Teacher Training |
Health Science New Teacher Training - June 11-15, 2012
Health Science is a relatively new program in Career and Technical Education and there are no teacher training programs for this discipline. In Montana, we have developed our own health science teacher training program for high school science or health enhancement teachers that have a collegiate background in anatomy and physiology.
This is a one week course, offered starting June 11, 2012 at the Miles Community College campus in Miles City. After this 40 hour course, teachers are also required to complete a 40 hour job shadowing experience at a local medical facility to gain an understanding of the healthcare system. The job shadow also introduces you to potential guest speakers for your class.
Upon completion of the course and job shadow you can apply for a Class 4A Endorsement in Health Science from the Office of Public Instruction.
To register for this training, please contact Renee Harris, Health Science Specialist, at Rharris3@mt.gov.
Travel, lodging, meals and curriculum will be provided for free.
Registration for this training closes May 4th at 5 PM. You must have administrative support from your school to initiate a health science program at your school.
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D.O.S.E. Program | |
Missoula County Public School (MCPS) Meadow Hill Middle School D.O.S.E. program tour at Providence Saint Patrick Hospital. D.O.S.E. stands for Diagnosis of Symptoms and Experiences.
During this project, students worked in pairs or small groups, and assumed the roles of medical doctors treating a patient with an undiagnosed ailment. To diagnose a patient's problem, the team of doctors conducted a background interview and completed a medical questionnaire that lead to the initial hypothesis about the patient's problem. The team then engaged in further research refining or creating a new hypothesis until the research confirmed a specific diagnosis. The project concluded with all student teams explaining their cases through a presentation. The culminating activity included a tour of a local medical facility, as seen in the picture above.
For more information contact Martha Robertson at
martha.robertson@mso.umt.edu |
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Education Spotlight: Pharmacy |
 According to MONEY magazine, Pharmacist is one of the Top 10 Best Jobs in America.
Pharmacists dispense medications prescribed by physicians and other health practitioners and monitor patient health. They advise physicians and other health practitioners on the selection, dosages, interactions, and side effects of medications. Pharmacists must understand the use; clinical effects; and composition of drugs, including their chemical, biological, and physical properties. Pharmacists are the medication experts. They protect the public by ensuring drug purity and strength. The goal of pharmacy care is to maximize positive health care outcomes and improve patients' quality of life with minimum risk. Most pharmacists work in a community setting, such as a retail drug store, or in a hospital or clinic.
Pharmacists usually work in clean, well-lit, and well-ventilated areas. Many pharmacists spend most of their workday on their feet. When working with sterile or potentially dangerous pharmaceutical products, pharmacists wear gloves and masks and work with other special protective equipment. Many community and hospital pharmacies are open for extended hours or around the clock, so pharmacists may work evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays. Consultant pharmacists may travel to nursing homes or other facilities to monitor patient's drug therapy. About 1 out of 5 pharmacists worked part time in 2009. Most full-time salaried pharmacists worked about 43 hours a week. Some, including many self-employed pharmacists, worked more than 50 hours a week.
Schools that offer a Pharmacy Technician Program:
MSU-Great Falls COT
UM Missoula COT
MT Tech of the UM COT
FVCC
Schools that offer a Pharmacy Degree:
UM Missoula |
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Science Fair |
Science Fair season in the North Central Region
The North Central AHEC office had the pleasure of participating in the North Central regional Science Fairs. On February 25th, 105 K-5th graders from North Central Montana displayed 86 science experiments for the judges and community. While they were patiently waiting for the results, the Program Coordinator from NC AHEC entertained the students with our health/science curriculum boxes and Great Hospital Adventure puppets. Students were able to use the otoscope to see into their friend's ear, test their eye sight, compare the human brain to a sheep brain, walk around with goggles simulating the eyes diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration. Students were also rewarded with syringe pens for answering health related trivia and health career quesitons correctly!
On February 29th at the Great Falls Civic Center, 6-12th graders got a chance to show off their science experiments. Over 500 students from at least 22 schools attended.  Jody Haines, director of the North Central AHEC region, presented an "Outstanding presentation in Medical/Healthcare in honor of a commitment to rural healthcare excellence." The award was presented to Hali Miller, a senior from Sunburst High school. Hali's presentation was entitled "Electromagnetic Radiation and its Effect on Drosophila Melanogaster." She interviewed and worked with several healthcare professionals from her rural town in order to successfully complete her project. While working with these individuals, she realized the true meaning of a healthcare occupation in rural Montana and hopes to work in a rural Montana healthcare setting in her future. She is planning on studying medicine or nursing and will be attending the University of Montana next year. Congratulations, Hali!
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Upcoming REACH Camps | |
Eastern MT AHEC
- March 28th at Stillwater Community Hospital in Columbus for Stillwater County high schools
- April 11th at Frances Mahon Deaconeses Hospital in Glasgow for Valley, Daniels, and Sheridan county high schools
- April 24th at Glendive Medical Center in Glendive for Dawson, McCone, Prairie, and Wibaux County high schools
- April 25th - Baker REACH/Health Fair - interested students sign up with their counselors for the health fair
- April 26th at Northern Cheyenne Serice Unit in Lame Deer for Rosebud County high schools and Community College students
North Central MT AHEC
- April 25th at Teton Medical Center in Choteau for 7-8th graders attending public, private, or home school within Teton County.
- April 4th at Marias Medical Center in Shelby for all 7-8th grade students attending public, private, or home school within Toole County. A total of 64 students will be accepted!
South Central MT AHEC
- May 1st at Deer Lodge Medical Center for 10-12th grade students from Powell County High School
- May 3rd at Broadwater Health Center for 9-10th grade students from Broadwater, Three Forks, and Manhattan High Schools
Western MT AHEC
- March 20th at the Community Medical Center for Hellgate High School AP Bio students
- April 2nd at Clark Fork Valley Hospital for Plains and Hot Springs High School Sophomores
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Career Spotlight: Speech Pathologist | |
Speech-language pathologists assess, diagnose, treat, and help to prevent speech, language, cognitive, communication, voice, swallowing, fluency, and other related disorders; this profession is closely allied with, but separate from, audioloy. For more information on these both speech-language pathology and audiology, see the "Students" section of the ASHA Website.
Speech-language pathologists work with people who cannot make speech sounds, or cannot make them clearly; those with speech rhythm and fluency problems, such as stuttering; people with voice quality problems, such as inappropriate pitch or harsh voice; those with problems understanding and producing language; those who wish to improve their communication skills by modifying an accent; and those with cognitive communication impairments, such as attention, memory, and problem solving disorders. They also work with people who have oral motor problems causing eating and swallowing difficulties.
Text courtesy of explorehealthcareers.org:
Explore Health Careers
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AHEC - The Basics |
This E-News is being sent to you by the Montana Area Health Education Centers (AHEC's) in order to open a dialogue among educators about Health Science Education for K-12 students of Montana. Through this newsletter we intend to:
- Build a shared resource of activities, materials, and lesson plans to draw on in teaching the health sciences
- Highlight the cross-curriculum nature of the health sciences
- 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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