Baldwin students get hands-on learning in medical field

Makenzie Shandor pulls the plastic tightly around Paige Young’s knee, making sure the ice stays in place.

“How did I do?” the Baldwin High School senior asks, as she practices wrapping her classmate’s knee for an injury.

“Looks good. I’ll give you a 10 on that,” said Natalie Sorce, an athletic trainer with Allegheny Health Network contracted to Baldwin-Whitehall.

Students at Baldwin High School this year are getting a first-hand look at the world of sports medicine and physical and occupational therapy — and even a taste of different areas of the medical field — as the district launched a newly created course that blends physical education classes with anatomy.

In exercise physiology, students learn the content related to the body, then they put it to practice. Students are given case studies — like a woman who fell while skiing. They must determine the person’s injuries, how diagnostic tests need to be done to determine the injury and how to treat the patient. They also do hands-on projects where they perform tests on themselves to learn how the body reacts to things, like muscle fatigue.

“There’s nothing else like this in any high school,” said Kent Radomsky, anatomy and physiology teacher, who co-teaches the class with Chris Crighton, a physical education and health teacher.

Teachers and administrators had been talking about doing a course like this for years.

Last year, they observed a class at Parkway West Career and Technical Center that was geared towards personal training and used case study application.

Instead of teaching classes like anatomy and careers in sports medicine in isolation, this course brings all of the concepts together in one place, Superintendent Randal Lutz said.

“Kids seem very, very excited,” he said. “It’s applying the concepts right away.”

The district is looking for funding to “really enrich the environment” to turn the classroom into “almost like a training facility,” or something “very different from a typical classroom,” Lutz said.

“It’s basically, here’s the body part. Here’s how you strengthen it. Here’s where injuries occur, now develop a strength training regimen,” he said.

Lutz said the idea is that students see how they will use what they’re learning in class in real life. He wants the connections to be made between multiple subjects to they see how it fits their life.

“We have to stop teaching in isolation,” he said. “Breaking down the walls to our classrooms to really get good experience and using the information as we’re learning it.”

The goal for the course is to give students a taste of the medical field while in high school, to help them with their career decision-making process, Crighton said.

“This really is a college course. This type of course is something that I took,” he said.

The teachers want students to know if this is for them now, instead of having to try it after they graduate.

“A lot of them don’t realize, you do something like this, you’re going to have to touch people,” Radomsky said.

They learn that in the class with projects like wrapping bandages on each other.

“Just the idea of getting familiar with the body, from the perspective of using your hands, it’s huge,” said Sorce, who was visiting the class that day to assist.

Every student in the class took anatomy last year.

After taking that class, Shandor said she wanted to know more. That’s why she took this class.

The hands-on portion gives students a better understanding of what is actually happening with the body, they said.

“I personally learn better whenever I learn something hands-on, rather than just being shown how to do it,” said senior Darryn Sleeman, 17, who plans to go into nursing.

“Someone can sit there and tell me, ‘Oh, your heart rate is going to go up if you run. But when we sat there and rode the bikes and saw how much our heart rates went up, it’s like, ‘Oh OK,’” said Shandor, 17, who plans to go into education.

Senior Alaina Wodarek, 17, plans to go into the medical field. In class, they’re talking about different careers in the field. She’s hoping that will help her choose the right career for her.

Many of the students in the class play sports.

They also see the class as a benefit, in case they ever get injured, said senior Kieran Schmidt, 17, who plans to go into nursing, as the classmates at his table practiced wrapping a wrist with an Ace bandage after learning about soft tissue last week.

“We learn what to do for each injury. Now, we’re learning to treat it,” said senior Michael Zemaitis, 17, who is undecided. “The visual aid is nice. This just resonates better with everyone. It stays in your mind, being able to do it yourself.”