By Helena Schultz, Staff Writer
For the past four year the Medical Science Academy has been putting on an expo to share information with the Indian Trail High School community about the human body and its functions. This year the event was called the MOErgue and a huge success.
“More than 700 people attended the Expo this year (including 85 family members and five Carthage College faculty),” said Tracy Metzler, Medical Sciences Academy life sciences teacher.
The MOErgue also includes all of the students in the Med-Sci Academy, but each grade level has a different job and are being taught different lesson.
“The freshmen are being taught how to paraphrase instead of plagiarize, the sophomores are going to be the doctors so they are writing essays and researching cause they are someday hopefully going to be part of that profession, juniors are doing models and games and the seniors are kind of putting things together and being the security and organizing of all it.” said Amy Jacob, a Med-Sci Academy chemistry teacher.
The students got to pick one of the body’s 11 systems, research information about it such as what type of jobs are included in that system, and create models of what is in their system of choice.
“Education about diseases, occupations and human body functions not by teachers (adults) but from their peers.”
— Tracy Metzler, Medical Sciences Academy life sciences teacher
Ana Giese, a Med-Sci sophomore, chose the cardiovascular system and spent about a month finding all the research, the history, the pay, the time, and the schooling, that is involved in the occupation of an EMT and paramedic.
“As a senior I was on the decorations committee so I was in charge of getting all the curtains that separated each of the systems, and I got all the posters and streamers for the expo.” said Abby Clair, a Med-Sci senior who has taken part in every over the past four years.
Nick Schroeder, a Med-Sci sophomore, said his favorite part of the expo was “learning about new diseases and new fields I could possibly go into.”
Overall the MOErgue was a hit and will continue to grow and benefit
students.
“Our student body…literally and figuratively — in so many ways,” said Metzler. “Education about diseases, occupations and human body functions not by teachers (adults) but from their peers. “Med-Sci students learned how to conduct acceptable research and documentation in order to write papers and create informational posters properly,” she said.
“Our students also worked on giving speeches and designing/building models and games for interactive display,” Metzler said.
Med-Sci students also learned and practiced valuable interpersonal skills. They communicated with all members in their assigned system as to what they would personally contribute to the booth, what the booth would look like and how they all would work together in order to ensure our guests experience interactive learning.
“Many step up to highlight and develop leadership skills during our planning meetings and throughout the day of the Expo. Many problems arise and we encourage students to work together to figure them out,” Metzler said.
“Lastly, this project gives students direct practice with time management, teamwork, real world job expectations, and conflict resolution,” she said.