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Thursday, April 17, 2014

I got to chaperone another field trip today with Sean's class -- this time to a hospital. It was lots of fun! When we first arrived, the kids each got hospital bracelets with their names on them. Then we went to a classroom to watch a short video about general hospital stuff, and the kids were given a hat, mask, and shoe-covers. 

Sean in his hair cover & mask
After that, we were separated into groups and split up. I had six boys (four of the same boys I had in the last field trip, and two new ones -- they were equally as awesome as they were a few weeks ago!). The groups did a rotation through several rooms where they were able to "play" hospital. In one room, they saw x-rays and wore a lead vest and put on a cast:

Wearing a cast
 In another room, they practiced drawing blood on each other (they learned the word "phlebotomist"):

Sean "drawing blood" on his partner
 In another room, they looked in the microscope at the blood (okay it was frogs blood on a slide, but they got to act as if they were in a lab):

Doing his research
In other rooms, they laid in a hospital bed, performed surgery, rode in a wheelchair, used crutches, and listened to their hearts with a stethoscope.

I was actually pretty fascinated with it myself -- this hospital has a separate section containing a handful of rooms for the sole purpose of bringing kids in for tours and teaching them about how the hospital works. We never saw (or even went near) sick patients. Definitely a good learning experience.