MEDICAL CENTER REPORT
03/11/09
Local high school students get taste of Stanford medicine
BY ROSANNE SPECTOR
You could just get rid of the nose," suggested one high school student. A bit drastic, though, she admitted. "Well, yes," the brainstorming session leader, inventor Joshua Makower, MD, reluctantly agreed. So then she proposed another solution to the problem of a runny nose: "One Tissue," a not-yet-invented tissue recycling system that kills germs and fits in your pocket.
Makower, co-founder of Stanford's Biodesign Innovation Program, was leading a session on invention for Med School 101, an annual program for high school students organized by the medical school's Office of Communication & Public Affairs. This year, 140 students participated in the March 6 event, coming from such schools as Eastside College Preparatory in East Palo Alto, Gunn and Palo Alto high schools in Palo Alto, Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, Notre Dame in Belmont, Terra Nova in Pacifica and Monte Vista in Watsonville.
After an opening session with Stanford's associate dean of medical education, Clarence Braddock, MD, the participants broke into groups for sessions with Stanford graduate students and professors. Among their experiences: seeing a surgery, holding a heart, touching tumors, questioning an expert on stem cell research—and, of course, inventing a solution for the sniffles.
What did they learn?
Med School 101 brought dozens of area high school students to the Clark Center and the medical center to get hands-on lessons about science. When they left, they had some new ideas about research and medicine.
 |
 |
|
Carson Byers |
Carson Byers, Gunn High School:
You can make a splint out of ropes and a walking stick if you're in the mountains hiking. … I went into the OR and saw a 9-month-old boy being operated on. It was just so interesting. It would be really fun to go even farther into the medical profession.
|
 |
|
Israel Escobar |
Israel Escobar, Terra Nova High School:
I'll tell my parents about the things I learned about cancer—since I had family members that died from it, and it's something that they really want to know more about because they're not sure how it works or how it starts.
|
 |
|
Nina Steitz |
Nina Steitz, Gunn High School:
It surprised me that you can use stem cells, and they're really versatile and can be any type of cell if you give them the right direction—so that you can make them into new parts to help heal spinal cord injuries and stuff. I thought it was pretty cool.
