September/October 2012
PROJECT LEAD THE WAY (PLTW)
Biomedical Science
To Our Valued
LCCPA Industry
Partners:
The 2012-2013 academic
year is off to a great start
for the Little Chute Career Pathways Academy.
We have welcomed 21
new students to our family, and we are starting to
settle into our routines.
As the first term of the
year comes to an end, we
want to let you know
about what we have been
up to at LCCPA!
Inside This Issue
Project Lead The Way
1
Amerequip Trip
2
First Year Health
Experiences
3
Second Year Health
Experiences
tter
le
s
w
e
N
r
e
n
t
r
a
P
A
P
LCC
4,5
Student Projects
5
Partner Projects
6
Upcoming Events
6
LCCPA Mission
LCCPA provides students
with high-level academic
and career preparation
through interdisciplinary
learning, internships,
and innovative partnership with post-secondary
institutions and business
leaders.
You step into a room lit only
by a red, rotary police light.
You look to the left and you
see a woman’s body stomach
down, dead. You don’t know
what to do. Should you walk
past like nothing happened,
or investigate the death?
This is how we, the students
of LCCPA, stepped into
PLTW. The death of Anna
Garcia, a fictional character,
was definitely a surprise for
us. Throughout this year, we
will be learning about how
the body works and how it
relates to Anna Garcia’s
death.
them.
Recently, we finished making a paper model of the human body. For this model,
we were divided into groups
and given a body system to
research. Once the research
for each body system was
complete, presentations using visual aids and cut outs
of the body’s systems were
put onto the paper body.
Future topics for the Principle of Biomedical Sciences
course include studying the
structure and function of the
heart, causes & effects of
diabetes, and causes & effects of sickle cell disease.
Lily Lee
Following this research project, all of us made a concept
map of the human skeletal
system. The concept map
helped us understand the
skeletal system. However,
the real test for this portion
of the unit was to connect
two body systems and their
functions using a concept
map. This helped us to understand how each body system works with others and
how we can’t live without
Introduction to Engineering Design (IED)
The manufacturing section
of the Little Chute Career
Pathway Academy has been
going full steam ahead. We
have completed the first unit
of study of IED. Unit One
focused on learning the design process that is the cornerstone of all engineering
professions. Students are
developing skills such as
concept sketching, setting
up, and maintaining an engineering notebook and portfolio.
The students are also learning how to properly use the
various pieces of equipment
located in the manufacturing
labs. The students are working on projects of their
choice, some of which are
mentioned in another article
of the newsletter.
We are now beginning Unit
Two, which focuses on technical sketching and drawing.
It is often said that a picture
is worth a thousand words.
This proverb is very true
when communicating ideas
to solve problems. To properly communicate technical
information about objects
that must be manufactured,
fluency in the universal language of technical drawing is
required. One of the first
steps to learning this language is developing the ability to sketch.
Page 2
LCCPA Partner Newsletter
Amerequip Trip Another Huge Success
On Tuesday, October 2nd, sixteen
Academy students paid a visit to
Amerequip Corporation in Kiel and
New Holstein. The sixteen students
were a combination of first and second year Technology, Engineering,
and Manufacturing Pathway students. This trip was the first career
experience for our first year students, and they had the privilege of
learning about a wide range of manufacturing concepts and occupations by touring Amerequip’s various facilities. Here’s what some of
our first year students had to say:
“On October 2nd we visited Amerequip.
Amerequip, a machine shop in Kiel, let us
tour their machine plants and try one of their
products, a John Deere Backhoe. During our
visit, we saw many jobs being done like welders welding parts together, and the painters
spray-painting machine parts. From there,
they go to assembly to be put together and
sent out to the stores. After that, we saw a
design engineer make instructions for a lawn
mower. This tour was both very fun and educational.”
Tommy Mlodzik, Zac Higgins, Zach Verbruggen
“We went to Amerequip for our first career
experience. We had many cool opportunities
to see machines in action, the floor organization, and future job opportunities. Everyone
was very welcoming to us and did everything
they could to make sure we were comfortable
and could easily understand what they were
talking about. They explained their different
careers very well.”
“Paxton and I visited Amerequip, a company
that manufactures backhoes and other accessories for tractors. They are a 40 million dollar company. I really enjoyed seeing the process in which a backhoe is manufactured.
Robotic welding interested us because the
welds are perfect every time. They manufactured a lot of accessories for John Deere.
They don’t put their logos on the backhoes
because then they didn’t have to worry about
selling them.”
Paxton Leicht, Erik Landsverk
Allison Vandenberg, Hannah Dornfeld, Alyse Franck
In addition to facilitating tours for our first year students, Amerequip
President and CEO Mike Vander Zanden and his staff also hosted a variety of job shadowing opportunities for second year Academy students.
This group of students made their second trip to Amerequip, following up
the initial experience they received last fall. These students have taken
the opportunity to describe what they gained from their first job shadowing opportunities of the year.
Doug Thompson explains the Amerequip
manufacturing environment to LCCPA
students
“My first job shadow was a great experience for me. There were
things I loved about the trip. I got the chance to see what things
were like at Amerequip, a machine shop. This shop makes parts for
tractors and other items. Even though some of the things I found out
were things I really wasn’t looking for, I still was happy with what I
got out of the job shadow. When I was there I got to sit with people
who love their jobs and learned what they do. The things I learned
will help me when I go to other job shadows, but overall the experience was great. I’m looking forward to the next.”
“At Amerequip I got the chance to job shadow a machinist. I got
to see how many different tools one machine holds and the code
that they have to do to make one part. All of the people that I got
to meet were every friendly, and they answered all of my questions very well. That will help me for the future because that is
the field that I want to get into. At the engineering plant, I got to
see Co-Create, which was an interesting 3D modeling program.
Another thing that was interesting was how long it took to make
a 3D model.”
Shane Schwaller
Zach Frederickson
“My job shadow experience was
amazing. I had so much fun, there
were lots of things we did. My favorite job shadow by far was when I
was job shadowing the design engineer.”
Travis Belongea
September/October 2012
Page 3
First Year Health Students
Our goal is to expose our Health Science
students to as many different health
care occupations as possible within their
first year in the Academy. To accomplish this goal our first year students
participate in a variety of career exploration experiences, including the health
occupation career exploration events
sponsored by the Fox Valley Health
Care Alliance.
While many high school students are
drawn to the health care field, most of
them do not realize the tremendous variety of occupations available in the
field. We want to thank the FVHCA for
providing such wonderful opportunities
for our students to experience these occupations first hand!
In addition to the FVHCA career exploration events, our first year students
also visit a variety of private practice
health care facilities throughout the
year. We are also very fortunate to
have Jill Niemczyk from the North-
eastern Wisconsin Area Health
Education Center visit us regularly
to educate us on health related careers.
FVHCA Highlights
“I found the FVHCA career experience at Agnesian HealthCare in Fond Du Lac to be very informative. It helped me realize I would never
want to work in a lab. I wouldn’t want to do that because it seems kind of boring. I don’t think I could just sit and study blood all day. I need
to be able to get up, move around, and socialize with others. I found the Sleep Disorders part of this trip to be very interesting. The only part
I didn’t like was how during this job you sit and watch two screens the whole time except when you’re hooking all the wires up to the patient.
I also found it a bit scary. By that, I mean the stuff you could possible see when these people are sleeping scares me. It just makes me wonder if I have any sleep disorders and if so what they are. The ER
part of this trip was very cool. If I was going to be anything besides a prenatal nurse, I think I would
want to work in the ER. Their days are very crazy. They’re constantly moving and trying to make sure
everyone gets in and out very fast. The only part I feel that I wouldn’t like would be all the blood and
the possibilities of people just dropping over dead on top of me. In conclusion I found this career experience very interesting and cool. The things we saw were different from what I expected. I never thought
you could watch people sleep and find out what’s wrong with them, or see so much is wrong from one
little blood sample, or how the ER could be so important to saving your life.”
Morgan Verbruggen
“We attended a career experience at Marian University in Fond du Lac. We went there to learn about
art therapy, hospice nursing, and social work. We learned that hospice nursing was all about trying to
make people’s journey to death as comfortable as possible. We found that social work involves helping
people in need and trying to improve their life. We learned that social work can be found in many
different places. Out of all three occupations, we found art therapy to be the most interesting. Art
therapy is a form of therapy that uses art. The volunteers explained that by using art people can heal
themselves. This experience was a good way to be exposed to different jobs.”
Hannah Rambo, Brianna Evers, and Jessica Boesch
“I went to the
FVHCA experience at St.
Elizabeth
Hospital. I
thought that
this was a
great experience. I
learned new stuff and found more about what
I want to become. I learned about Integrative
Medicine, Occupational Therapy, and Nursing.
Integrative Medicine includes the areas of
acupuncture, massage, and aromatherapy.
The presenter explained to us what she does
for a job. She told us that she gives people
massages when they come in and sometimes
gives them an ear seed. An ear seed is like a
very small band – aid with a seed in the middle. This goes on your ear, and when you are
stressed out you can just press on it and it
will relax you.
An Occupational Therapist is a person who
helps people recover from strokes and brain
injuries. They help people work on their
upper body and balance. The presenter told
us some stories about who she helped out in
her job; she also brought in one of the patients she was helping out.
Nursing was my favorite out of all the sessions; there was a mannequin that acted just
like a human. We had to take stethoscopes
and listen to it breath and find the pulse and
feel it. I think that I want to go into this part
of the health field.”
Kara Hooyman
Page 4
LCCPA Partner Newsletter
Second Year Health Students
After our students are exposed to a wide
variety of health care occupations during their first year at LCCPA, we want
to provide our second year students with
the opportunity to experience the field
in more depth. At the end of the
2011/2012 school year, we asked our
Health Science students to tell us which
occupations they wished to learn more
about. School-to-Career Coordinator
Anna Schlimm has been working very
hard to schedule opportunities for our
students to shadow, and the job shadow
program is officially underway. We
hope that our list of partners who are
willing to host shadows will continue to
grow over the years so that all of our
students will have the opportunity to
expand their knowledge of the health
care field
Job Shadow Highlights
Kaukauna Veterinary Clinic Job Shadow
Sports Medical Center Job Shadow
“Our visit to the Kaukauna Veterinary Clinic was very beneficial in my
opinion. We got to see what a day working at the Clinic would be like.
Some of the things we saw during the experience were drawing blood
from the animals, taking the animals’ temperature, cleaning their teeth,
preparing them for surgery, and we even were able to see a live surgery.
I really appreciated the time they took to explain to us what they were
doing during all the different medical tasks. After going to this experience, I learned that this is something I would like to look further
into and learn more about to consider as a future career. If I had the
opportunity I would go to this experience again.”
“I was given the opportunity to job shadow an orthopedic surgeon at
the Sports Medical Center in Appleton, Wisconsin. It was a very rewarding experience because I’m very interested in the orthopedic
field. Doctor Mejia was very nice and informed me on the procedure
which was very helpful because I never have
seen the real human body. I got to see two
live surgeries. One was on a knee cap, and
the other on a torn meniscus. The whole
staff was very kind and gave me the feeling
that I would want to be a part of the orthopedic field. Whether it is the anesthesiologist,
a nurse, or even the actually orthopedic surgeon, I definitely am thinking about pursuing this career.”
Rayah Janssen and Abbie Botz
Alaina Schepp
Optometric Services S.C. Job Shadow
“A couple of weeks ago, I was able to see a possible health career firsthand during a job shadow. I shadowed Dr. Salisbury, an optometrist at Optometric Services S.C. as well as one of his co-workers. I was able
to sit in on a variety of eye exams, and learned about many different problems such as macular degeneration and cataracts. According to Dr. Salisbury, you need eight years of education to become an optometrist.
Your undergraduate degree should be in a science like biology or chemistry. After that, you can apply to
optometry school. Admission is highly competitive. There are about twelve applicants for every one slot
available in optometry school. After school, there are a couple of different routes you can go. You can open
your own business, the riskiest but most rewarding option. Otherwise you can work in a hospital or commercial setting. The biggest skills you need to succeed in the optometry field are people skills. Interacting
with patients is a daily responsibility because your primary focus is to serve them. When asked what the
best part of his job is, Dr. Salisbury says he most enjoys helping people and improving their quality of life.
Overall, the optometry field seems highly enjoyable and rewarding, and is definitely something I want to
look into further down the road.”
Pharmacy Job Shadow
“For my first job shadow, I went to Walgreens to shadow a pharmacist. I really enjoyed this experience
because I got to learn about what the pharmacist does. I saw how the prescriptions came in, and how the
pharmacy technician filled the orders. After they filled the bottles up and double checked, they would put
it on a conveyor belt that would bring it to the pharmacist. Then, the pharmacist would check the prescription again and make sure the name matched up with the medicine. They are very careful about
checking everything multiple times. Once the prescriptions are filled, people can come pick it up at the
pharmacy window. I liked this job shadow because pharmacies are very interesting. Although I spent a
half day there, I think it could’ve been shorter. I could see myself being a pharmacist, but before I make
any decisions, I want to take chemistry and see if I like it.”
Brenna Olson
September/October 2012
Page 5
Psychology Job Shadow
“When you hear of a psychologist, you usually think of a person lying on a couch and being
asked questions. But that’s not always true. Dylan, Tamara, and I job shadowed our school
psychologist. Unlike a clinical psychologist, the school psychologist helps students improve
in school. They also help give guidance, but not often. We learned that being a psychologist
is a fun job and is very fulfilling. While we were there we experienced a wonderful presentation about new learning techniques on reading. We also got to learn about what an intervention is. There are different types of interventions that school psychologists have to do. It
was a good thing for us to experience and hopefully we will be able to experience one of
these interventions. The job of a psychologist looks exciting and very fulfilling.”
Lily Lee, Tamra Walker, Dylan Janssen
County Coroner Interview
“My first job shadow experience was a great, outstanding experience for me. I interviewed
the Outagamie County Coroner, Shelby Donner. He has been at his job for 11 years, and
he loves it. He told me a lot about things like what it takes to be a coroner, what the average work week looks like, and what the starting salary is. I learned a lot, and I hope I can
pursue this career more in the future. Overall, I thought this experience was great, and I
hope it opens up doors for me in the forensics field. “
Sam Mlodzik
Project Based Learning
At LCCPA, we want to provide our students
with as many opportunities as possible to
practice the skills that they will need to succeed in a 21st century economy.
A.J. Barrington, Travis Belongea, and Zach Frederickson are designing and
building special tables for home.
Our industry partners continue to stress the
importance of skills like problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork, collaboration, communication, and project management. Quite often, these skills are overlooked or deemphasized in a traditional high school curriculum because of the push to acquire
“academic” skills and knowledge.
Jody Geurts is developing a Blender [3D Animation Software] training session that he will present to area middle school students.
In order to make sure that we are requiring
our students to go beyond mere academics, we
require all of our students to design and implement a 25+ hour project. The purpose of
these projects are to allow students to work on
something that is personally interesting and
motivating in a format that requires them to
practice all of the skills described above.
Erik Landsverk is designing and building a customized fire pit.
We have included a description of some of the
projects that students have chosen to pursue
this year.
Dylan Janssen, Lily Lee, Paxton Leicht, and Omar Rosas are entering a
Rube Goldberg contest.
Abbie Botz and Alaina Schepp are building an aquarium.
Rayah Janssen, Brenna Olson, and Morgan Verbruggen are taking on an
interior decorating project as they deck out the LCCPA classrooms.
Ben and Zach Verbruggen are designing and building Go Kart frames, with
the intention of building the complete machines in the future.
Tamra Walker is investigating the world of body piercings and creating a
video documentary of her findings.
Hannah Dornfeld, Alyse Franck, and Allison Vandenberg are project managers for the design and construction of a Christmas parade float for Children’s Hospital.
These are only a few of the projects that Academy students are taking upon
themselves this school year. We have other students exploring sewing, knitting, quilting, cosmetology, and photography. In our future newsletters, we
will update you on their progress!
Partner Projects
A major goal of Little Chute Career
Pathways Academy is to try to provide students the opportunity to work
collaboratively with our industry
partners to complete projects that
provide value to our partners in some
way.
One such project commenced on
Wednesday, October 10th when the
healthcare students went on a
fieldtrip to Parkside Care Center to
learn about dementia and to kick off
our dementia box project. We were
able to talk to some of the residents
that have dementia, and they were
very interesting to talk with. We had
the chance to experience a dementia
simulation. For some of us, the experience was very overwhelming, and
others weren’t bothered by it. Overall
it was a great experience, and we are
all excited to begin the project.
We want to thank Mrs. Olejniczak
and her staff at Parkside for sharing
this opportunity with our students.
Projects like this allow our students
the opportunity to learn and apply
their knowledge in a very meaningful, “real life” setting.
In addition to our project with
Parkside, our students are also involved in a project with Van Zeeland Manufacturing. Our Technology, Engineering, and Manufacturing students will be working on developing a system to track and
manage coolant usage for the company’s machines. Again, our
thanks go to Mr. Van Zeeland and
his employees for providing this
opportunity for our students.
We hope that these projects are
simply the first in a long line of opportunities for our students to collaborate with our industry partners to
help solve “real life” problems. These
are the types of projects we hope will
define the educational experience at
LCCPA.
If you have any ideas for a project
that our students might be able to do
in conjunction with your business,
please let us know!
Finally, first year students Hannah
Dornfeld, Alyse Franck, and Allison
Vandenberg, are leading an effort
to help Children’s Hospital design
and build a float for the Appleton
Christmas parade. This float will
be a moving Christmas light show
coordinated to a variety of seasonal
songs.
Upcoming Events
We’ve been very busy at LCCPA for the first two months of the school year, and things won’t slow down until June!
Here are some of the main events on our schedule for the next several months:
Tuesday, October 23rd:
First Year Engineering/Manufacturing to Bassett Mechanical
Wednesday, October 24th:
All First Year Students to UW-Fox Valley
Monday, October 29th:
First Year Health Students to Parkside Care Center
Wednesday, October 31st:
Second Year Health Students “Virtual Autopsy” Fieldtrip
Thursday, November 8th:
First Year Health Students AHEC Visit [Dentistry and Nursing]
Wednesday, November 14th:
First Year Engineering/Manufacturing to A to Z Manufacturing
Thursday, November 15th:
Second Year Health Job Shadows
Monday, November 19th:
Second Year Manufacturing/Engineering Non-Disclosure Presentation
Monday, November 26th:
Memory Box Shopping for Parkside Project
Thursday, November 29th:
First Year Health to FVTC Dental
Tuesday, December 4th:
First Year Engineering/Manufacturing to Bemis
Thursday, December 13th:
First Year Health Students AHEC Visit [Clinical Lab Science and Dietics]