Seventh graders at Simon Middle School were visited by the Air Medical Helicopter outside the school recently.
AirEvac personnel spent the day with the students and talked to them about how they use the concepts of thermal energy in controlling the temperature of patients during a medical emergency flight and the kinetic and potential energy the helicopter generates to stay airborne.
“The idea of inviting AirEvac to come visit our school grew out of a [seventh grade chemistry] project where our students use chemical reactions to create and control thermal energy or heat,” science teacher David Steadham said. “Heat is such a vital component to saving a person’s life during an emergency, and yet it is often overlooked by the untrained.
Steadham said he reached out to the AirEvac Helicopter Ambulance service for help in getting the students excited about the project.
The AirEvac crew was made up of a paramedic, registered nurse and a pilot.
The team provided a real world medical and mechanical example of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.)
School officials said the group enjoyed the real-life lesson.
“I liked learning how helicopters worked, how they’re able to carry patients and all the equipment and how fast they are,” one student, Damien, said. “It made me think about flying helicopters, maybe becoming a pilot one day.”
Another student, Leesa, said the personnel had a lot of medical equipment that they use and they talked about how the helicopter would glide if the engine goes out and while she liked hearing about nursing and medical jobs, she doesn’t think she’d be able to work in the helicopter because of her fear of heights.
Steadham said having the AirEvac team come to the school was a great learning experience for the students.
“This is probably a career choice that many students had never thought about or knew existed,” Steadham said. “So it became an amazing opportunity to show students how science can save lives as well as show them careers that use science every day to make a difference to the world.”