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.