I'll Be Needing Stitches
By: Sarah Kapenga

Project at a Glance :

This project is for 11th/12th graders in Human Anatomy & Physiology. Students will look at the recurrence rate of common minor injuries that land people in the Emergency Department, interfering with their time at work, sports, hobbies, etc. The goal is to focus on expediting the fixing of such problems in hopes of reducing the strain on ED’s and empowering people to get the help they need faster and cheaper. The emphasis will be on common lacerations and sutures among other things such as burns and rashes.

Driving Question:

How do we, as medical advisors, reform the emergency  department system to serve people with injuries and  streamline care?            

Standards:

• S4S: Communication (large-scale/marketing and personal)
• HS.SCI.HMNANT.02.2 - Define root words in medical terminology.
• HS.SCI.HMNANT.02.2 - Terms of Directions, Planes Regions and Homeostasis.​

Team / Culture Building:

• Inner Heroes - This activity will connect students with diverse careers in the medical field from surgery to social welfare to business operations.​

• Creative DNA - Students will save their answers and refer to them throughout the year as we tackle new systems of the body. 

Entry Event:

• Students will investigate an example of a "real world" accident scene through a medical examiners lens.

Stakeholders:

• Medical professionals, including Emergency Department staff
• Individuals experiencing injury
• Medical insurance companies
• Organizations where injuries occur (ie. schools, recreation departments, club teams, workplaces)  

Empathy Building:

• Stakeholders Map ​

• Empathy Map 
• Conduct interviews with Emergency Department staff, organization’s lawyers, patients displeased with Emergency Department visit, and UN workers.

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Students will conduct Individual research into The 17 Goals of the UN  https://sdgs.un.org/goals
• Pains and Gains chart
• Students will break into groups of 4 to gather information they need. Then, they will pitch out what they found to the large group and revisit the 17 goals of the UN  https://sdgs.un.org/goals.​
• Use the Speedboat activity to identify anchors related to the DQ.

• Individual assessment: formative quiz over medical terminologoy and Emergency Department protocols.

Incubation:

•  As students are working on the Investigation Stage, the teacher will encourage them to write down new ideas on a sticky note and set it aside.
• 100 Ideas Quota​ ​

• Add in 4 more really crazy ones
• How would ______ solve this?​

• Crazy 8 - individually, then as a team
• SCAMPER
• Yes, and Can it . . .
• Follow up with The Anti-Problem protocol.

Checking in:

•  Students will participate in several mini-pitches at this stage to practice communication and to get and give feedback. 
• Develop a concise list of questions for the authentic audience members to give us authentic feedback on. When that list is finalized, contact them so students know where to re-direct if needed.

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Solution Building:

• Affinity Mapping
• Group and Saturate
• NUF test
• $100 test
• Dot voting
• Use of Perplexity to explore the nuances of the the solution.

Critique and Revision: 

• Storyboarding - graphically representing ideas to maximize time with critique and revision.
  
• Critical Friends - small groups sharing with another small group for feedback.
  
• Conduct mentor meetings for additional feedback.
  
• An individual assessment will be done just prior to the presentation with the teacher (3-4 minutes) to gauge their understanding.​

Authentic Audience:

• Jennifer Yoder, Hamilton Community Schools nurse
• Lindsey (Brouwer) Schaap, MHA, LNHA, Corewell Health, Senior Operations Specialist​​​

Final Presentation:

• Ideally students will present in person, but if schedules do not align, we will send our presentations to be evaluated.
• Students will choose the format for their final presentation.

Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

• Use the Fast Rubrics for feedback and scoring.
• Students will make use of a mentor (another PBL teacher or perhaps a parent or friend familiar with PBL or the medical field).
• Use Talking Chips to debrief after we have final feedback from our authentic audience.
• Students will be allowed to submit an addendum to their presentation reflecting on their understanding of the objectives in relation to their solution.​

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:

Sarah Kapenga teaches science at Hamilton High School.

     "Motivation and student behaviors take care of themselves when students are working on a well-designed project.  I get to participate in their learning and watch the magic happen!"