Photos: Windsor High Students Bring Science, Technology into the Real World

Let's face the facts — not every student is captivated by the human cardiovascular system or basic technology concepts. Everyone — young, old, student, professional — is, however, guilty of having their attention stolen by the rare accidents of everyday life — the car accident, the fire, the ambulance roaring past.

Windsor High Students applied concepts from anatomy and physiology and technology courses to life's emergencies when they were assessed on their ability to respond to and identify various accidents involving automobiles, including carbon monoxide poisoning, embedded objects, chemical burns and thermal burns.

The students — all taking either automotive, medical emergency or anatomy and physiology courses — designed the scenarios themselves, according to Windsor High teacher John Reinwald, as a part of the school's STEM initiative.

STEM (an acronym for Science Technology Engineering and Math) is a collaborative effort between science, math, career and technical education instructors aimed at enhancing communication between teachers and educational experiences for students.

"The standards of Connecticut (education) are moving toward practical application," said Reinwald. "So... we're finding the ability to take something from anatomy and physiology and something from technology and apply it to a real life situation. There are huge benefits there. Plus, [the students] get to see some things they probably haven't seen before."

Reinwald called the various scenarios set up by students "ones that could occur, but hopefully you'd never see them." 

Students were evaluated on their decision-making skills in the embedded object scenario, in which a passenger of a car had been impaled by a foreign object, and another passenger had a concealed head injury. Students should decide tend to the head injury first.

In the carbon monoxide poisoning, an actor was passed out underneath a vehicle, unconscious. Students were required get the actor from underneath the vehicle, ventilate the area, and respond appropriately.

"This is life experience on the do's and the dont's of an accident, how quick it can happen and the steps on how you want to go about taking care of it," said Assistant Chief of the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department Steve Bianchi.

At the high school along with a number of volunteer firefighters and EMS to assist in the operation of several staged emergency stations, Bianchi said the experience gained by students will help them in real life situations, and could lead some to volunteer for the town's fire department or emergency services.

The exercise was the first of what Windsor Public Schools' STEM committee plans to be a series of collaborative projects.