Aerie students as high school teachers

Fresh off their snowy backcountry trip, the Semester students looked like they could use a new challenge. Time to raise the bar.  Yesterday, the Aerie crew spent the day with three busloads of high school students. You heard right: our soon-to-be EMTs paired up to teach wilderness medical skills to over eighty 9th graders from Big Sky High School's Health Sciences Academy.  The day turned out to be an outstanding learning opportunity as well as a community service and outreach experience. 

Max and Katie taught bleeding control and wound management, so of course they needed some gore to spice things up.

David and Tyler P passed on some techniques they learned from Brad Bennett about moving patients under fire.  They added a special twist and turned the whole thing into a race.

David and Tyler offered each group the opportunity to haul the Big Sky teachers around in an improvised litter.

Nami and Max pose proudly with their pupils, who in turn proudly display their improvised splints.   The group learned how to immobilize lower arm and lower leg fractures.

Trenton and Clay offered Community CPR instruction as well as a tutorial in the use of AEDs. The students discovered their school has two AEDs; most had no idea what they were or where they were located and were surprised to learn how simple they are to use.

Dara (our Semester intern) helped teach stations as well. These students of hers perfected the art of a two-person carry.

Special thanks to Bob Vandenhoevel with Missoula Emergency Services who also taught stations during the day. Bob brought in his experience as a flight medic when he threw one eager group into a mock lightning strike, instructing them both in the Incident Command system and in signaling systems for helicopter rescues.