Kettering College Radiology Students Spark Curiosity in Young Students
Kettering College radiology students visit Spring Valley Academy (SVA) every year to teach third- and fourth-grade students about x-rays. This project was designed by Tuta Ionescu, Radiologic Technology Chair and Professor, in 2014 to incorporate service learning into the radiology curriculum. Through collaboration with SVA, a K-12 Christian institution, the second-year radiologic technology (rad tech) students conduct multiple visits and presentations throughout the school year.
Ionescu says, “The goal is to increase awareness about safety, injuries that can cause bone fractures, how to prevent such injuries, and what to expect in a hospital setting should such injuries occurs. This service-learning project is directly linked to the students’ summer didactic learning on pediatric radiography and imaging.”
Idamae Jenkins, Radiologic Technology Assistant Professor, says, “The class’s visit to SVA is a chance to interact with the pediatric population, knowing that some of our students have not had their pediatric rotation at the clinical site yet. It gives them a chance to showcase their creativity and enhance their communication skills by speaking to a large group of people.”
Ionescu and Jenkins hope the interactive methods Kettering College students present in the SVA classes help introduce young students to new knowledge and increase awareness of healthcare professions. They agree watching our students step into the role of teachers is rewarding, as they find creative ways to convey basic concepts to a group of students with different learning styles.
While in the SVA classrooms, the rad tech students are in charge of the entire session as Ionescu and Jenkins observe. The third- and fourth-grade students ask a variety of questions, such as, “If they don’t put the arm in a cast, how else can it be fixed? How do they take the cast off the arm? Do you know that babies have 305 bones?” Sometimes the young students simply tell a story. No matter what the day brings, the rad tech students must field all questions on their own and implement engaging ways to bring students’ focus back.
Visiting the SVA classrooms has proven to be a rewarding service-learning project that students feel helps them use their knowledge in a new way. The department sends out a survey to rad tech students after the visit, and they often reflect on how fun the experience was and how much they learned as they communicated information to students and answered their impromptu questions while their own professors observed them as they took the lead.
Kettering College’s partnership with SVA is helping our students push themselves out of their usual routines and expand their confidence and knowledge as they serve others. Students on both sides gain new information and curiosity from the day of instruction, showing that serving others helps everyone involved to grow.
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About Kettering College
Kettering College is a fully accredited, coeducational college that specializes in health science education. A division of Kettering Health, the College is located on the Kettering Health Main campus in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, and is chartered by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Kettering College offers an Occupational Therapy Doctoral program, a Master of Physician Assistant, Bachelor and Associate of Science degrees, and certificate programs.