Tech-Savvy Students Get STEM Learning with New Technology

DALLAS, Feb. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Harmony Science Academy Biomedical students are spending classroom time learning live from top surgeons in operating rooms. Click here to watch the video.

Real-time. Real-surgery. STEM learning.

Students at Harmony Science Academy Dallas High School recently streamed live from the campus library to an OR where orthopedic surgeon Robert Scheinberg, M.D., performed a hip arthroscopy.

Harmony's Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Biomedical Sciences leadership collaborated with StreamVenue Healthcare and Texas Institute for Surgery at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas to create the live classroom.

"It was an awesome experience," said Manisha Singh, a teacher of a PLTW Biomedical Sciences course. "My biomedical students loved it. The students were going to the computer and typing questions, and the surgeon was answering them at the appropriate time."

Teachers like Singh and campuses such as Harmony view STEM education as the heart of today's high-tech, high-skill global economy. Plus, the inconvenience of transporting students miles away is eliminated. For surgeons like Dr. Scheinberg, the StreamingOR technology allows them to see more during minimally invasive surgical procedures, and to offer Continuing Medical Education to other physicians globally.

StreamVenue Healthcare's co-founder/CEO Clayton Redmon explained that this caliber of biotechnology is typically reserved for residents, medical students, and physicians. The Dallas-based company plans to reach more students nationwide via Project Lead the Way.

"We realized that our technology encompasses every aspect of STEM education. We thought it would be a good idea to expose students at an earlier age to the technology that will stimulate critical-reasoning and problem-solving skills," Redmon said.

Singh agreed.

"Most of these students are looking forward to medicine as a career and watching live surgery allowed them to get a feel for what the medical field is like."

And, they're not the only ones who want to spark such interest among youth.

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who was the first registered nurse elected to the U.S. Congress, said, "It is so important that as many errors be avoided as possible in procedures." Johnson also is a Ranking Member of the Congressional Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

"Watching technology companies like StreamVenue Healthcare focus resources on STEM education is very exciting,"  Johnson said from her Dallas office. "I am delighted to see young minds being directed to technology that will be very useful for all mankind."

SOURCE Texas Institute for Surgery