SARSEF Girls’ Campers Wowed by HSIB Field Trip Experience
Southern Arizona Research, Science and Engineering Foundation (SARSEF) campers practice a procedure on Hal, the pediatric patient simulator, as explained to them by ASTEC’s Rochelle Marshall. The girls, all part of the Applied Career Exploration in Science (ACES) camp were, from left, Jeanette Mendoza, Ayleen Cruz and Victoria Vigbedorh.
The University of Arizona Health Sciences recently partnered with Southern Arizona Research, Science and Engineering Foundation (SARSEF) to host their Applied Career Exploration in Science (ACES) camp. The Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine (STEM) camp serves middle school girls from the Sunnyside Unified School District and enables them to explore a wide variety of careers to spark their interest in higher education in the STEM fields. ACES stresses teamwork, use of technology and hands-on learning, while exposing students to higher education at a critical time in their lives.
During the full-day field trip, the 26 students had the opportunity to be UArizona Health Sciences students for a day, becoming fully immersed in the activities offered in the Health Sciences Innovation Building (HSIB).
The students first met with Kasi Kiehlbaugh, PhD, director of the Health Sciences Design program, and participated in a design challenge, where they were presented with a problem and guided through the design thinking process to come up with a solution.
The girls then experienced hands-on training at the Arizona Simulation, Technology Education Center, (ASTEC) where they were divided into three groups that rotated through simulation activities, including working with Hal, a life-like child manikin, role playing a patient and a health care provider, and performing a virtual dissection on the Anatomage table. They also toured the ASTEC tissue lab, where they held artificial tissue used for suture training.
The girls wrapped up their day by taking part in an hour-long panel discussion featuring a team of distinguished female Health Sciences faculty and staff, who offered inspiration and insights into their career paths.
“I was torn on what I want to do career-wise, but now I have an idea of what I would want to do in the medical field,” wrote one of the girls at the end of the field trip. “The building is amazing. It made me feel like I belong,” wrote another camper.
At the end of the day, the girls received backpacks filled with STEM activities to continue their learning long after the tour.
Deana Ann Smith, RN, health care simulation educator for ASTEC (second from left), takes middle school girls from the ACES camp on a tour of the tissue lab.
ACES campers take a look at simulated skin made in the ASTEC tissue lab. The skin is used by Health Science students to practice suturing.
Deana Ann Smith, RN, health care simulation educator for ASTEC, left, shows ACES campers the labor and delivery patient simulator during their tour.
ASTEC’s Rochelle Marshall, left, helps ACES camper Ayleen Cruz find the patient simulator’s heart beat as Jeanette Mendoza watches.
ACES camper Victoria Vigbedorh puts on a stethoscope so she can listen to the patient simulator’s heartbeat.
ACES camper Yazmin Pino moves her finger left to right to see if the patient simulator’s eyes will follow her movement.
Kasi Kiehlbaugh, PhD, talks with ACES campers about using design thinking principles to solve health and wellness problems.
ASTEC’s Deana Ann Smith, RN, (second from right) shows students the Anatomage table in the ASTEC lab, where students practiced dissecting a digital body.
Health Sciences intern, Sophia Murphy, role-played as a doctor, practicing clinical skills with a patient, during the field trip.
ACES camper Leia Switzer, left, had a chance to act as a patient while Ayleen Cruz, right, was the doctor during a simulated clinical skills rotation. Clinical skills volunteer patient, Claudia Orecka-Teplitsky, center, gave them feedback after they finished their simulation.
Colette Scott, director of Interprofessional Clinical and Professional Skills Center, right, uses makeup to create a bruising affect on ACES camper Isabella Espinoza. The campers then went into their clinical practice presenting with bruising.
ACES campers participated in a panel discussion with Health Sciences and other faculty and staff, who talked about their career paths. Panelists from the left: Velia Lebyas-Nuno, PhD, MSW, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health; Michelle Ortiz, PhD, College of Medicine – Tucson; Janine E. Hinton, PhD, MN, RN, CHSE, College of Nursing; Kate Worthing, PhD, College of Veterinary Medicine; Jenene Spencer, PharmD, College of Pharmacy; Zelieann R. Craig, PhD, BIO5 Institute.