West Fannin Elementary School’s fifth grade classes have had an opportunity to learn about medical subjects through their current partnership with Fannin Regional Hospital.
“In the West Fannin STEM/STEAM Lab, the fifth grade students are currently studying the skeleton system and how x-rays are used to view bones,” STEM/STEAM Lab teacher Kim Patterson said. “Amy Hughes, the imaging director at Fannin Regional Hospital, Susan Denton, the marketing director, and Jason Jones, interim CEO of Fannin Regional Hospital, visited the West Fannin STEM/STEAM Lab on Wednesday, October 16 to teach the students in Mrs. Tori Arp’s homeroom about the field of radiology, how x-rays work, how x-ray technology has changed over the years, and the various types of bone fractures.”
According to Patterson, students were even able to view images of real x-rays.
Jones recently reflected on the partnership at a Fannin Regional Hospital Auxiliary meeting. He said, “If I wasn’t a nurse or doing what I’m doing now, I think I would be a teacher. … We did our first class with them yesterday, it was on bone health and imaging. Amy Hughes, our Imaging Director, taught for about an hour. The kids had about 2,000 questions. It was great.”
Jones looks forward to future work with the West Fannin and hopes to begin working with other schools as well.
“It was the first of a long series of things,” he said. “I was so excited when we got done, I was like ‘What are we going to do next week? What do you guys want to learn about?’ It was fun.”
Patterson expressed the school’s appreciation for the partnership stating, “We are very thankful at West Fannin to have wonderful partnerships like this that help provide our students with unique and meaningful experiences.”