NEW to the Oakville Science department is the Biomedical Program. The classes available in this program are Principles of Biomedical Sciences, Human Body Systems and Medical Interventions. Students from any grade are eligible to take these science classes while taking the appropriate grade level science course. Each of these weighted classes are two semesters long and are taught by Ms. Sarah Guenther and Mrs. Rebekah Kirchhofer.

Students who take Principles of Biomedical Sciences, which is the interductionary class, explore the concepts of human medicine and research processes to bioinformatics. The students are enjoying the hands- on projects that investigate the human body-systems and various health conditions. Students who take the class say its interesting to learn about heart disease, diabetes, sickle-cell disease, hypercholesterolemia, and infectious diseases. Over the length of this course, students work together to determine the factors that lead to the death of a fictional person. After pinpointing those factors, the students investigate lifestyle choices and medical treatments that might have prolonged the person’s life.

Human Body Systems is the second class in the program. Students in class explore identity, communication, power, movement, protection and homeostasis. Exploring science in action, students build organs and tissues on a skeletal manikin. Students design experiments, investigate the structure and functions of the human body, and use data acquisition software to monitor body functions such as muscle movement , reflex and voluntary action.

The newest class that will be offered in the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year is Medical Interventions.  Students have a chance to investigate the variety of interventions involved in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases as they follow the lives of a fictitious family. This course is a “How-To” manual for maintaining overall health and homeostasis in the body as students explore: how to prevent and fight infections; how to screen and evaluate the code in human DNA; how to prevent,diagnose and treat cancer; and how to prevail when the organs of the body begin to fail. through these scenarios, students are exposed to the wide range of interventions related to immunology, surgery, genetics, pharmacology, medical devices,and diagnostics.