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Tuesday, July 28, 1998
Teen science program helps students take their medicine
From hearts to hard drives, a class offers pupils a Summer of Discovery in the sciences.
By Natalie Patton
Review-Journal
Memories of 13-year-old Julie Felton's first encounter with the worlds of science and medicine are anything but fuzzy.
"When I was 3, my mom bought me a doctor's set and my dog ate it," she recalled Monday. "I wanted to dissect her to get it out."
Fortunately, she said, the dog escaped her wrath and her plastic surgeon's knife because her mom quickly bought her a new toy bag filled with fake medical instruments.
Felton left that bag and her dog at home Monday, the first day of the weeklong Summer of Discovery program for 44 Clark County teen-agers interested in science and medicine. The program is sponsored by the University of Nevada School of Medicine and Area Health Education Centers, a federally funded office that, among other things, coordinates continuing education programs for practicing physicians and entices minority junior high and high school students and teen-age girls to pursue careers in the sciences.
"These are very capable, very intelligent kids," said Sergio Fernandez, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas biochemistry senior who is teaching this summer's group of eighth-graders.
"I hope I can help them get ahead and see they can do more than they think they can or more than what they've been told they can. I hope they look at me and say, 'Hey, he can do it, so can I.' "
Fernandez, 21, plans this fall to take his medical school entrance exams.
Teaching 13-year-olds this week about the human body's circulatory and immune systems has forced him to distill college descriptions of complex systems into "understandable" language. That lesson, he said, will help him when he begins treating patients.
"Going to the doctor is a frightening experience for most people," he said. "Doctors need to drop the lingo and difficult terms so their patients can understand them."
Felton said Fernandez has done a good job of explaining the workings of the human heart, lessons that helped prepare the class for Wednesday's dissection of a sheep heart.
"I can't wait," said Felton, a Von Tobel Middle School student, about dissection day. "It's going to be cool. I'm not shy of blood. Blood's normal. Everyone has it."
She said she is also looking forward to the group's visit this week to the Clark County coroner's office and the cadaver lab of the Community College of Southern Nevada's physical therapy program.
Other highlights of the Summer of Discovery include a visit to University Medical Center, a behind-the-scenes look at the county's air ambulance program and lessons in how to prepare scientific presentations and build Web pages.
Interactive lessons Monday included taking each other's pulse rates while jumping rope with and without the weight of packs on their backs. Other students monitored the patterns of ink on wet tissue paper to try to understand DNA fingerprinting.
Summer of Discovery participants learned about the science program from their school counselors and science teachers. They were required to submit applications, write essays about their favorite science projects, send in two letters of reference and show proof of a 2.5 grade point average or better.
Marco Esparza, another 13-year-old from Von Tobel Middle School, said the program already has turned him into a greater admirer of his cardiovascular system. "The heart keeps pumping every second and never gets tired," Esparza said.
In fact, Fernandez told the students, the heart pumps two gallons of blood through its chambers every minute. Not only that, but the heart beats 2.5 billion times in the average lifetime, he said.
"It's a hard worker unless it gets sick," said Esparza, whose interests include medicine and computers. "Then it needs some help from the doctor."
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Instructor Jamie Pollock uses balloons to explain how cells function to middle school pupils participating in a Summer of Discovery program, sponsored by the University of Nevada School of Medicine and Area Health Education Centers.
Photo by Gary Thompson.
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