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Students Teaching Students

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Lee College nursing students polished their one-on-one teaching skills recently as they shared their knowledge with students from the Ross S. Sterling High School Health Science Academy.

Janice Rogers, a member of the Lee College nursing faculty, said, “They asked us to provide educational sources and references to topics and issues that affect teenagers. We have anything from good eating to hand-washing to vaping to sun protection to car safety to suicide and the effects that marijuana has on the body — negative effects.”

The learning for the day went beyond just the information high school students gained about the specific topics being addressed.

The high school students in the Health Science Academy are those who want to pursue health-related careers — some plan to become nurses and others want to be doctors or enter one of the many other professions in the growing career field.

For them, it was a chance to see the next step in their own education, whether they attend Lee College or another college or university.

For the Lee College students, it was a chance to practice the kind of teaching skills that nurses experience in their work.

“In nursing we do a lot of teaching,” Rogers said. “They had to develop a pre-test and a post-test. They have to evaluate their own learning.

“It helps them to be a more well-rounded nurse since they had to learn how to teach and evaluate and present.”

In fact, the teacher who was with the Sterling High School students gained some of her teaching skills right at Lee College.

Paula Schmidt, an instructor in the Health Science Academy, came through the Lee College nursing program before going on to get her bachelor’s degree. She has also taught at the college.

“My students are just looking at the healthcare profession and what do they want to do,” she said. At the event, “They are actually getting to look at things that at school, at the college level, that they would be doing.”

In addition to the interactive education displays, the high school students also got a tour of some of the Lee College simulation rooms — full-scale hospital rooms where students can practice their skills on mannequins especially designed for teaching medical treatments.

As a particular highlight, a few of the students delivered a “baby,” in the maternity simulation room as the others watched the process. Even though both mother and child were plastic simulations, the students were then able to critique the delivery and learn more than a textbook or video could provide.