By Laura Mazur
Community Post
Hands-on learning is what many schools use to educate students. Even if it does mean touching a real heart or lung.

Joint Township District Memorial Hospital took health education to a different level on Monday as they brought real organs to classrooms at Minster Middle School for a children's health fair.
“The event went very well,” said Anne Larger, Community Outreach coordinator for the hospital. “I saw kids were very engaged and entertained.”
Students in fourth through eighth grades got to learn about certain health lessons geared toward their age level, which included topics such as healthy living, heart health, skin cancer, the dangers of tobacco and why to avoid alcohol.
“If you stay in a bar long enough, you can get smoke in your lungs even if you weren't smoking,” said Alicia Homan, a seventh grader, of a lesson she learned.
Added Ted Trzaska, another seventh grader, “There is two or three times the chance of a baby dying of SIDS�"Sudden Infant Death Synhdrome�"if parents smoke.”
Some lessons, such as these lessons on tobacco, even involved students getting to feel the lungs of a pig. Additionally, they got to see what healthy and tobacco infected lungs of a human look like.
“I hope they learned from this that they understand the dangers of tobacco�"not only inhaled, but also chew and snuff products, as well. Hopefully, they'll be able to make the right choices,” said Stacey Hilgefort, a registered respiratory therapist with JTDMH.
Fifth grade classes also got some hands-on learning by getting to touch a cow's heart and see all the chambers.
This year's half hour class sessions were a longer version of last year's fair, which featured the same topics, but in five-minute segments. After evaluation of the fair, teachers thought the information was a bit rushed and lessons needed to be expanded for this year's presentations.
“We dropped health classes for fifth and sixth grades two years ago,” explained Principal Brenda Boeke. “We know there are lessons they are missing. With the half hour, we're hoping to fill in some of these they're not getting.”
Teachers are being asked to evaluate this year's lessons, as well, and bring back hospital staff next year for even more healthy learning.