Harlem Shake worms (C. elegans)

We spent days working with these Nematodes and watching them thrash in different concentrations of alcohol...and we appreciate the movements seen here !
Best Quote- " I never thought it would be so hard to keep these worms alive !"

Job Shadow internships

Each spring our students venture out with community mentors to learn more about the daily responsibilities in their career interest area. Below are some examples of just how much fun and learning our students had on site in Sonoma County:

Vista Health Clinic: Future Faces of Family Medicine:

FFFM Participants Spring 2013

 

Here is a link to the newsletter article written in Sonoma magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Piner HS/SSU Summer Internship Crew
(left to right) Sera Matasau, Victoria Trier, Anissa Garcia, Chris Campbell, Ryan Williamson ( SSU Graduate and Student Teacher), Christian Barnard, Raya Zopolos, Tommy Nguyen

 

 

 

 Students from the HSB program were invited ( and paid) to work with Ryan at Sonoma State in a Biotechnology lab to trouble shoot a lab protocol that Ryan created for students to test the GMO content of foods. They made their own solutions ( using their great Chemistry skills), prepared and run gels such as the one seen below and then like most scientists...had to go through the troubleshooting problems when they did not get anticipated results.

Gel showing GMO markers in Food

HSB Class of 2013 !

Here are our proud graduates of the HSB pathway- Keep making Piner Proud of all of your accomplishments !

And here is my friend Rashna...shaking my biceps off !!

Here is our latest newsetter

Health and Science Investigation Pathway.

 

              We are proud to present the graduates of our HSI pathway. Each student ** has completed 2-3 years of challenging curriculum in addition to the required internship hours. The following list shows the exciting next step for our graduates !! Good luck !

Student	Community Internship	Future plans….
Jessica Aguilar **	Monica Okuhbo SRJC	SRJC> UOP or SJSU- Kinesiology
Keishla Batista **	Vista Clinic – Family Medicine	4 year college – RN or Nurse practioner
Devyn Breslin	Kaiser: ICU- Pulmonary	Santa Rosa Junior College- EMT ? DB degree
Jonathan Campos **	Vista Clinic – Family Medicine	4 year college- Professional soccer
Jennifer Gonzales**	Vista Clinic – Family Medicine	Santa Rosa Junior College> 4 year: Biology
Ivonne Gutierrez **	Kaiser- Occupational medicine	SRJC> Psychologist
Gissell Jacome	Vista Clinic – Family Medicine	UC Santa Cruz- Health Science major
Pardeep Kaur **	Kaiser - Orthopedics	Santa Rosa Junior College
Mercedes  Koumarianos **	Kaiser: admitting and  nutrition and Family Medicine	Santa Rosa Junior College with plans to transfer to UCLA- Psychologist
Arley Lara  **	Pet Care Hospital	SEJC> Veterinary program UC Davis
Karina Lozano **	Vista Clinic – Family Medicine	SRJC> Nursing
Holley Maassen	Memorial: Dr. Wilbur: pathology, Dr. Marcus: Cosmetic Surgery	UC Davis- Biology
Yessica Moran	Vista Clinic – Family Medicine	Dominican University- Biology
Jose Ochoa **	Monica Okuhbo SRJC	Santa Rosa Junior College
Alexander Pulley **	Family dentist	SRJC
Samantha Rauscher **	Wikiup Vet Hospital	SRJC- Law school !
Noemi Sanchez **	Vista Clinic – Family Medicine	SRJC> Med School Family Physician
Melissa Sandoval **	St. Joseph Urgent Care, Dr. Shettlyer DDS	Santa Rosa Junior College
Rashna Sharma	Kaiser- Redwood Radiology	Santa Rosa Junior College- Rad Tech
Kristine Soy	Vista Clinic – Family Medicine	Arizona State University- Biology
Hao( Dave) Tran **	Marc Archambault-  Back to Golf	San Jose State University- kinesiology
Brennen Urrutia **	Blood Guys-Memorial Hospital	BYU in Idaho

 

 

Piner High Students visit Medtronic: May 15 2013

Andrea Robles and Victoria explore pig hearts that have stents implanted.

Students were introduced to the many biomedical devices used in a product fair put on by Medtronic engineers.

 

Medtronic hosted Piner High students to a STEM Awareness day to present projects and demonstrations of what their engineers and scientists do to create their life saving biomedical devices. Alarming statistics were given to the students  that science and technical careers comprise 1 in every 5 US professional careers yet many companies hire outside of the US. Companies like Medtronic are joining others in a national push to increase student enrollment in Science Technology Engineering or Math careers and this day of outreach is their way to motivate students to take the challenge and step up to a STEM career.

 

A product fair was organized by engineers and scientists to show off the many biomedical devices Medtronic has developed. Students observed and interacted with coronary stents, endovascular stent grafts, percutaneous heart valves, renal denervation systems and various catheter delivery systems.  They also poked around the valves of a dissected pig heart, analyzed the caffeine content of power drinks using a gas/mass spectrophotometer and were in awe of a 3D printer that makes moving workable prototypes from a computer assisted drawing.

 

Many students found the day to be an exciting preview of the science and technology they have to look forward to in their future careers. Many of these students already have a passion for math and science and gained additional insight into the challenges and rewards that await them should they chose to pursue STEM pathways in their future.

 

Piner High already has three such career pathways in place for their students:  Geospatial Technology, Health Science and Biotechnology and MAKE classes with a new MAKE physics program being offered next year. Medtronic is interested in strengthening these pathways and will be offering such a day to other Sonoma County high schools in the future.