SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP, OH (WLIO) - Area professionals in the STEM field gave Shawnee Middle School students an inside look into those careers.
In the 4th annual STEM Day for Shawnee Middle School, students are getting a taste of the many careers it encompasses. Presenters from EMS to lab services and respiratory therapy provided their knowledge in a hands-on way. The Rhodes State Mobile Lab showed students a simulation of a real heart attack in a 3D way, and much more.
"They are looking at different heart rates, how they would place the different things on a child when they get into the ambulance if there was an emergency," stated Danielle Banks, Rhodes State Mobile Lab.
The healthcare profession is was a huge component of STEM careers, and Lima Memorial's lab services showed students the types of white blood cells in a blood smear and how that helps a doctor diagnose a patient.
"The health care profession affects everybody. Everybody deals with hospitals, doctors, and nurses and we're kind of the behind-the-scenes people with the lab, but it kind of gives them an idea of what we do every day and how it affects them as potential patients as they get older," explained James Smith, Lima Memorial hematology.
The hands-on lessons give students a new perspective on the challenges our medical personnel face on a daily, and insight into how our bodies operate in different situations.
"How complicated it is to get the lungs back breathing and if you don't get it in a certain amount of time, they could die," commented Cody Furr, Shawnee Middle School.
"The human body has kind of like its own little thing that it could do at any time. You can be perfectly fine, then all of a sudden you go into cardiac arrest or something," said Jordi Berkhalter, Shawnee Middle School.
Moving on from the medical field, students got to hear from a Johnny Appleseed naturalist on the different areas of study in the naturalist field.
"The other tracks you can go into team building, you can go into rock climbing adventure guiding leading, so the knot tying one was more of that adventure side, so if you're leading a group and they're rock climbing you're going to need to know how to tie a knot to tie the people in to safely climb up that rock," explained Amy Banner, naturalist from the Johnny Appleseed Metropolitan Park District.
Even for those not interested in STEM, the activities involved teach students skills they can apply in any career.
