WHAT: Fifty middle- and high-school students from Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley learn to culture bacteria, put in an intravenous catheter and much more as they explore health and science careers during a three-day visit to The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
WHEN: Tuesday, March 17, through Thursday, March 19
WHERE: Various locations at the Health Science Center’s Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Campus and the Greehey Academic and Research Campus.
WHO: Eighth- through 10th-graders from the border region who participate in the Health Science Center’s Med Ed Program, which encourages South Texas students to pursue careers in medicine, dentistry, nursing and other health professions. Med Ed offers participants year-round opportunities for academic enrichment, community service and field trips like this one.
NOTES: The students will do a number of activities over the three-day period. Some possibilities for media include:
• Bacteriology: Students learn about the world that can’t be seen with the naked eye as they swab themselves and their possessions to culture the bacteria growing there. The students will do the swabbing at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Then they will return at 1 p.m. Wednesday to be grossed out by the results.
• Anatomy of the Eye: After learning how the brain and eye work together to create the sense of vision, students will perform vision tests on themselves and dissect sheeps’ eyes to learn more. This will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
• Hands-on Health Professions: Using models at the Health Science Center’s School of Health Professions, students will learn to intubate, put in intravenous (IV) catheters and more. They’ll also make casts of their fingers with the same materials used for dental casts.
Call External Affairs staff for directions to these and other events during the Med Ed students’ visit. Interviews available in English and Spanish.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $668 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $16.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $36 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 25,600 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and other health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, visit www.uthscsa.edu.