PEER Presents at Six College Station Area Schools
Fellows from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences’ (CVM) PEER program gave six presentations at six different schools in various cities surrounding the College Station area during the week of May 21.
While presenting on a variety of topics to audiences reach approximately 515 students from third through 12th grade, the fellows were able to gain a greater understanding and appreciation for the organization and preparation that teachers truly have to have each and every day.
On Monday morning, fellows talked about the veterinary field with three classes of College Station High School health science students. In each class of the three classes there were several students who wanted to become a veterinarian, and more who wanted to work with animals in some capacity.
Later that day, the fellows traveled to Snook Middle School to talk to two classes of fourth graders on how to become a veterinarian.
“This presentation was particularly fun because we did simulated cases during which the students were able to be the veterinarian and solve the problems,” said PEER fellow Erin Eads. “They did extremely well and seemed to really enjoy themselves!”
On Tuesday, the PEER group traveled to Iola High School to give presentations on animal behavior with three biology classes, highlighting the concepts of domestication and genes and behaviors have been altered throughout time.
“At the end of the activity, we used clickers to teach the students how to ‘clicker-train’ an animal, and then we did an interactive activity during which we actually clicker-trained the students,” Eads said. “A volunteer would be sent out into the hall, and then we, as a class, would decide the action that they would need to do. Then, using candy as treats and only being able to communicate with a clicker, we ‘trained’ the student to do an action. The students really enjoyed this activity! We trained to do a variety of actions, from beg, to pet the class guinea pig, to even get under a table and spin around!”
On Wednesday morning, PEER talked about infectious disease with 140 fourth-grade students at Caldwell Intermediate School, stressing the importance of hygiene and how quickly infectious diseases can spread.
“At the end of our presentation, we did a five-question review and the students who answered correctly got a high-five from us. What they didn’t know is that we had put on fluorescent glow powder onto our hands,” said PEER fellow Melodie Raese. “We then had each student get up and high-five at least five people in the room, and then we took a black light around that made the glow powder fluoresce. We talked about how quickly the ‘infection’ spread and how important it is to always remember to wash your hands.
“The students really enjoyed this experiment; it is definitely something that we want to do again,” Raese said.
That evening, PEER drove to Navasota to present at the High Point Elementary School’s Third Grade STEM Night.
“We had a room of veterinary anatomy with a presentation board, and we discussed any and all questions both students and parents had about veterinary anatomy,” Eads said. “We also had stethoscopes and let the students listen to their hearts and learn how to take a heart rate. Our most popular subjects with veterinary anatomy were how dogs vision differed from ours and if their heart beats the same as ours.”
Finally, on Friday, the fellows spent all day at A&M Consolidated High School, where they presented to seven pre-advanced placement biology classes on the different careers in science.
“We made this presentation interactive and tailored it to the careers that students said that they were interested in,” Raese said. “We also put in relevant research information, such as edible vaccines, that students may not have heard of in order to spark their interest in new research that is going on.”
