Key Communicators

The Key Communicators are student representatives from each of the high school career academies in the St. Johns County School District.  They relay information about what is happening in their academy by saving it to the categories listed to the right.  Click on any of them to view what they have done so far this year.

Articles pertaining to the academies as a whole will be listed in the District-Career Academy category.

For more information about the Career Academies of St. Johns County, go to www.stjohns.k12.fl.us/academies or call the Director of Career Education Paula Chaon at (904) 547-7730 or the District Career Program Specialist Kathy Mignerey at (904) 547-7681.

During the Allied Health Assistant 3 class’s shadowing at the hospital, each student is required to keep a log of what they did each day and what they learned. Here are two personal logs from random students in the class :

-At first walking into the Pre Op room, I became nervous when i saw blood being drawn from a patients arm (I’m still working on being comfortable around blood). Being in the Pre Op room today, i didnt as much shadow the phlebotomist as i did the lady in pink, who made up the beds and sent drawn blood to be tested. It was really fascinating to see how they send blood up to the lab through some sort of tube system. Also, being in the Pre Op room reminded me of where i work in a way, becuase of the fact that when they are ready for another patient to be seen, they page their pager to let them know they are ready to have their test done. I learned a lot today, mostly about the preparation that goes into receiving another patient.

-Today in the CVU I saw a catheter being taken out of a man who had just undergone a test, to see if he could have a certain surgery on his heart. Sadly, the doctors found a certain disease (COPD I believe) and realized the procedure he needed, could not be done. But as the catheter was being taken out, the nurses had to use a certain device (or their hand) to keep strong consistent pressure on the artery, where the catheter was inserted, until the bleeding came to a stop.

This semester, students taking the 3rd class of the Health Academy have had the opportunity to shadow different areas of the hospital for 2 periods a day. At first, their teacher assigned them to different areas of the hospital, randomly, which was kind of nice becuase they did not know what to expect. After 2 weeks of shadowing, Ms. Noseworthy (the teacher) asked eached student where he/she was most interested in shadowing at the hospital and tryed her best to get every student where his/her interest was highest. The experience is unlike anything else a student has ever encountered. The bonus to taking this class is that some students who thought they wanted to be in health care, realized it wasn’t so much for them, while some stundent find that they love the hospital setting, a certain area, and know that health care is what they want to get into.

Everyday there is something new to learn and our opportunities are being expanded all the time. Every two days the students rotate to a different area of the hospital which helps for everyone to view nearly everything the hospital has to offer and pinpoint personal interests before attending college in the future.

As the first semester came to an end, the Health Academy students taking Health Careers 2, completed a very interesting project. The project was different for each individual which made it more fun and more interesting for everyone. The objective of the project was to compare two different careers that interested each individual ( one HAD to be health related). As we prepared powerpoints and posters to display our information to the class, we each learned a lot from ourselves and from eachother. From a personal experience, I decided to compare a pediatrician and vetrinarian. Both interested me from the beginning but resulted in a passion to become a pediatrican over a vet. This project really helped each of us to learn a lot and was a great way to end the semester.

We have started construction of our house designs! As I had stated before in an earlier post, our Drafting 2 class started the famous project. We focus on a hand sketch first of our desired home layout and learn the average size of common materials that make up a house. Than, we put our hand sketch into AutoCAD. The class has begun to print out our designs and have been given the chance to further think about how exactly we are supposed to construct this masterpiece. I am very excited and I hope to have a picture of a finish modeled by the end of the year!

The students of the Evnironmental and Urban Acdemy is just about finished with their canoe. They used different ideas this year rather than their past,it’s sure to be their best yet.

Hey,
This month we have been focusing on our famous house design project in Drafting 2. This project requires a blueprint including dimensions of all the views of the house and the scaled down wooden construction. Furthermore, restrictions are placed on the design, but I like to views these as an enticing challenge. This house is an original creation displaying your dream home and the talent you hold in making the wooden structure stand.

             Our Academy of Environmental and Urban Planning has been working in affiliation with the University of Florida’s Partnership for Water, Agriculture, & Community Sustainability at Hastings on a garden right in front of the academy’s classroom. We have successfully sectioned off a piece of land with permission from Mr. Johnson, Creekside High School’s principal, and have planted many different plants such as strawberries, green beans, peas, and roselle.

              Not only will these plants provide the academy classes with an edible treat later on, we are also learning different techniques to produce and maintain a successful garden. One of the methods that UF has recommended for our garden include the entire outline of our garden which involves using raised beds in specific areas and alternating the different plants in each bed to better help keep the soil compact and prevent soil erosion. This project has been a great influence on our class by giving us the chance to put what we’ve learned into practice and promote teamwork. Thank you UF!

Biotechnology Academy student Joseph P brought home best in show at the regional science fair February 2nd. Joseph is doing research on Parkinson’s Disease using the model organism Caenorhabditis Elegans, more commonly referred to as C. elegans and in even simpler terms nematodes. Joseph will be going to the international competition later on in the year. Also, another Biotechnology Academy student Tori W received 1st for her category doing research on the IQ of dogs. Congratulations to Joseph, Tori and all other science fair participants!

Tags: biotechnology, Ponte Vedra High School, PVHS, science fair

As the second semester begins, Creekside’s Network Support students are wrapping up their course, and beginning the grueling process to prepare for the CCNA. The students plan to take the exam after the third quarter ends. Passing this exam will certify the students as entry-level network technicians. This certification gives them the opportunity to land a job with Networking companies such as, Cisco, Linksys, HP, and many more. Creekside’s new Network Support instructor Stan Greenawalt gave a brief statement, saying “At this point the students are the most critical point in their networking careers. This certification exam will get them in the door to start their career. From there, it’s up to them to take further certification exams to advance up in the field.”

Tags: CCNA, Creekside High School Aacademy of Emerging Technology, Network Support

The Bartram Trail Vystar Business and Finance Academy is participating in an ecofriendly project called Project Innovate. It brings students together to provide new innovative ways to design a classroom by using eco-friendly materials. This involves everything from recycling cardboard and paper to reusing water pipes to building chairs. We started this project in December and will complete it by March.

The project started with us being assigned to redecorate our classroom with a more comfortable, green environment. In March, we are required to have a 3D model, a presentation, such a PowerPoint or a presentation board, and a 5-minute speech explaining our ideas. Our class has worked hard so far, but we still have some more work to do. We are looking forward to the judging at the end of the project, but we also have plenty of anxiety. With so much more to come, I wish us good luck on this project, and I will keep it updated for all of you.
If you want to learn more about this competition or have any questions, check out the following link:

http://www.stjohns.k12.fl.us/academies/0DF5D9D7-0118C716.4/Project%20Green%202012%20Student%20Project%20guidelines.pdf