New pioneers

DUNCAN — Like other explorers in human history, these stand at the precipice of a new frontier.

Unlike their predecessors, though, they will not journey forward in Conestoga wagons or on horseback. They will explore a new world while sitting in classrooms and laboratories, surrounded by high technology.

In clearing new trails, they won’t use axes, hammers or plowshares. Instead, the tools for opening the wilderness include laptops, Bluetooth, Smart Board, document and flex cameras.

While their ancestors needed knowledge of structural construction, farming and self-defense to tame a new land, they will develop the frontier by utilizing chemistry, mathematics, medicine and biology.

They are the first students enrolled in the newly-created Biomedical Science Academy at Red River Technology Center (RRTC). And according to the “trailblazer” who’ll guide them through the frontier, they are a new generation of pioneers.

“The world is completely limitless for the students who’ve enrolled,” Lori Lewis said. “They’re ‘pioneers,’ who can find something so new that they can become the creator of their own job for the future; they can invent a profession for themselves.”

According to the flyer RRTC offers on its new Academy: Biomedical science is a broad field encompassing many different medical health care disciplines. These include biochemistry, biomedical engineering, forensics, immunology, microbiology, pharmacology, physiology, radiological science and many more.

It’s a multi-discipline Academy being offered to high school juniors and seniors, that Lewis said “is high-tech, high-skills and high-hands-on.”

And when the Biomedical Science Academy officially opens in the fall semester, it will bring RRTC to the cutting edge of technology center training.

Only two other technology centers and one high school in Oklahoma offered the Academy this year, “and RRTC was the only site outside of a metropolitan area,” Lewis noted.

“As other schools are implementing the Academy, RRTC is being looked to as a pilot site for examples of how to begin the Academy and evaluate its success.”

Planning the Journey

As it was for other pioneers exploring new territory, RRTC spent considerable time in preparation before beginning the adventure. Over two years ago, the late Jerry Morris, then superintendent of the school, recommended biomedical science as a field that would help RRTC to be a trailblazer for the state’s other technology centers.

“The Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education (ODCTE) approached us about becoming one of the pilot sites in the state for biomedical science,” said current superintendent Ken Layn. “They asked us to have it all ready for 2007-08, but we had extensive remodeling underway and to have the very best Academy, Jerry and I felt we needed to wait until ’08-09 to be ready.

“The concept was first presented to area superintendents and principals at the ‘sending (district) schools,’ and also to all the district school counselors, so they would understand biomedical and the opportunity the students had. They all agreed it would be a great opportunity for their students.”

Early planning began to accelerate in the 2005-06 school year. In the next two years, a section in the northwest corner of RRTC’s main building was selected as the site for the Academy, and renovation began to create the physical plant that includes a classroom, a laboratory and a “prep room”.

Since the new year, an array of high-tech equipment and teaching tools were installed. These innovative tools will enhance instruction, and much of the equipment was on display, when an open house for students and parents in May.

Students will make use of new laptops that provide access to the Internet. Lewis said, “We can use the laptops to stay current and follow the science as it’s happening. The Internet is a tool, instead of a toy.”

Bluetooth and Smart Board technologies will be utilized on a daily basis, as well as a document camera, which is an overhead projector that allows the user to interact with the screen.

“We also have a flex camera, so when the students are using a microscope or doing a dissection, I can demonstrate at the front of the classroom and everyone can see how it’s done,” Lewis said. “Anything you can do in a real-life college or work environment, you can do here.”

Finding a Pathfinder

During the preparation process, RRTC administrators also went on a search to find an instructor with the background, knowledge and enthusiasm needed to institute the new Academy. The search eventually led to Lewis, who was teaching science at Waurika High School.

A native of Ryan, Lewis had a background teaching biology and also had experience in medical science and technology.

Prior to teaching, she was employed by the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, gaining a laboratory background by working in arthritis and immunology. While teaching in the public school realm, she had a second job in the pharmaceutical industry, monitoring studies and performing quality assurance.

Lewis resigned from the Waurika job following the 2006-07 school year. She’s spent the past year expanding her knowledge of biomedical science, as well as writing the curriculum that will be offered in the two-year, four-semester academy at RRTC.

Lewis initially trained in principals of biomedical sciences, a Project Lead the Way course, and pre-advanced placement anatomy and physiology, which is the first semester of instruction for high school juniors.

In June, she’ll be at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, Ind., to train in the second semester of instruction for juniors, which includes a human body systems course.

“I was invited to be part of the national writing team for Medical Interventions, which is the third course in the Academy and will be offered to high school seniors in their first semester,” Lewis noted.

Still ahead is training in the second semester curriculum for high school seniors, which is centered on a Science Research Project. Advanced-placement biology will also be taught. The advanced-placement courses provide the high school student an opportunity to acquire college credits.

Preparing pioneers

When the Academy’s open house was held in May, 28 students had already enrolled to occupy a classroom that holds 32. Lewis was pleased because “we have 11 sending schools, and we have students from 10 of the 11 sending schools. That’s really good.”

Ahead for the students is a two-year Academy that Lewis said “will hone their skills to be successful in the college realm. They will have access to the same state-of-the-art equipment seen in college labs as well as in industry”

High-tech equipment will also be mixed with media as basic as sculpting clay, which students will use to create three-dimensional views of anatomic examples of human physiology in both healthy and diseased conditions.

“By the time they complete the Academy, students will have had exposure to instruction that includes chemistry, medical science and math, including some imbedded physics and calculus,” Lewis said. “Compared to other students going into college, their knowledge base will be so rich, and they will have focused on the human body since their junior year (of high school).

“They will be doing a lot of project-based work, in which they will have to do research, solve a problem and offer a solution. Those exercises are geared toward college preparedness.”

Extremely enthusiastic about the Academy, Lewis is counting down the days until Aug. 14, when the young pioneers’ journey into the new frontier officially begins.

“The first semester, we’ll work with cells, bacteria and DNA, and we’ll get a broad overview of biomedical science to get the student’s feet wet,” Lewis explained. “We’ll also be working on communication and polishing presentation skills.

“This Academy is geared for students with the goal of taking the two-year Academy to prepare them for success in college, and in reaching their professional goals in the field of biomedical science.

“Biomedical science is so broad, and that’s why we’re interested in students who want to go on to college, and who want to take on a challenge and be involved in fields that will be important to the future.”

In other words, students who want to become pioneers.

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