Cutting edge technology helps students with hands-on learning in a virtual environment

ARCHBOLD, Ohio (WTVG) - Four County Career Center is one of few schools in the Buckeye State to use use this new piece of teaching technology: The Anatomage Table. It’s an interactive tablet with three-dimensional views of real human bodies, allowing students to visualize anatomy as they would on a fresh cadaver.

“I can bring the kids up here, we can manipulate things, we can turn things around, they can see it from all angles,” explains Morgan Weber, a teacher at the school. “And the nice thing is I also have this on my computer so if we do by chance get sent home, I can still use this tool and they can see all this stuff at home.”

Students have been attending in-person classes full time at Four County Career Center since August 20, but there’s always a chance they could have to switch to remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic. Most career tech programs, like those at the school, are built for hands-on, in-person learning.

“At my old school, we’d get packets of papers and you’d have to go through and highlight what you wanted,” says Saige Johnson. “But here with the table, you can see everything else and actually look at it and get what it is.”

Four County can also use the table for its adult education students who may learn at an advanced level for their jobs.

The table isn’t the only cutting-edge technology in use at the school. Across campus at the veterinarian assistant program, instructor Stephanie Pippin is in her second year teaching students using the Syndaver Canine Surgical Model.

“Never had a cadaver before,” says Pippin. “We were doing a lot of our practicing on mannequins, which are not lifelike at all. They didn’t have organs, they didn’t have the blood supply. Before it was fake. Now we are just getting to almost real live animals.”

“We never really knew how to give injections and stuff,” says Ashley Creps, a student in the vet assistance program. “Having the dog, we are able to do that now.”

“My point has always been, people in Columbus sometimes forget this little Four County area up here,” says superintendent Tim Meister. “We think we educate kids as good as anybody in the state of Ohio. Having cutting edge equipment like this solidifies that point.”

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