January 2018

PHS Indian News

Volume 2, Issue 5
Pennsauken School District

Science National Honor Society

Dates to Remember ...
Pennsauken High School is transitioning from a comprehensive
February
high school to an academy driven, collegiate aligned institution.
3rd
With this change comes the need for new avenues to support
Adult ESL Classes
and challenge our students. The Science National Honor
6th
Marine Recruiter
Society is a nationally recognized group that commends
7th students for their academic achievements in the sciences. This is
Army Recruiter the inaugural year of SNHS at Pennsauken High School, and we
9th are all very excited for a year of competitions, fundraisers and
Winter Freshman Dance
interesting science based trips. We already have a promising
10th
group of students who, not only participated in the school’s first
Adult ESL Classes
15th ever science fair, but also, who signed up to be a part of the
Early Dismissal 2018 New Jersey Science League. This is a competition across
17th all of New Jersey that allows our students to show off their
Adult ESL Classes knowledge in fields like biology, chemistry, and physics. Top
24th
ranking schools receive prizes. We are very proud of all their
Adult ESL Classes
27th
hard work and we look forward to a fruitful year!
ASVAB
28th
USAF Recruiter

Created by: J. Cornelius

 Engineering Club
Pennsauken High School’s newly formed Engineering Club participated in the 2018 South
Jersey Physics Olympics on Saturday, January 13 at Washington Township High School. The
Engineering Clubs team – Davis Tran, Lenny Nguyen, Thomas Tran, David Do and Dairon
Estevez – took third place in two of the six competitions hosted at this event. These
students participated in a variety of challenges, including events that consisted of building a
cantilever from 100 pennies or building a car that is powered by a mousetrap and has the
greatest acceleration. Overall, the Engineering Club had a
phenomenal showing at this first event and looks forward to
more events in the spring!

Created by: J. Cornelius

 Anatomy and Physiology Class Attends A Live Surgery
Pennsauken High School’s Basic Anatomy & Physiology had the unique experience of
witnessing a live neurosurgery streamed from Overlook Hospital in Summit NJ.
Students viewed L3-L5 laminectomy/intervertebral disk replacement at the Liberty
Science Center. Students were able to communicate with the neurosurgeon during this
procedure. Students witnessed the operation, under the surgical microscope, magnified twenty
times, in real-time. Open dialogue was also permitted with the entire surgical staff:
anesthesiologist, circulating nurse, biomedical technician, assisting neurosurgeon,
neurophysiologist, and scrub nurse. This open dialogue emphasizes the importance of
collaboration, “how good communication turns into a success”, says Delilah Lewis, a senior
student who wants to pursue a career in nursing. Students were pleasantly surprised about how
much of the medical terminology they understood, promoting the application of studies of the
skeletal and nervous systems.
In addition, this experience brought a sense of reality about “life in the operating room” to
some students, clarifying misconceptions relayed by television dramas and social media. Junior,
Maseray Massaquoi, expresses her opinion that “....tv glamorizes the operating room. On tv
they don’t show all of the steps that are done to the body before performing the actual
procedure. In real surgery there is so much preparation and repeated steps.” There was a acute
awareness about the tedious nature of this job. This very common procedure in neurosurgery
took several hours to complete, focusing on the removal of bone markings on a relative small
bones of the body, circumventing nerves that control motor function. Katy Kha, a junior in
A&P I, quotes “This surgery has shown me that a person’s life is in your hand. With the long
preparation to replace the intervertebral disc, it takes time and precision to cut through the
muscles without making a mistake,
such as hitting a nerve.”

This trip was a fantastic application

for our students who are interested in
applied sciences. Because of this
experience, there are plans to take
another trip for our incoming A&P I
students this spring semester.

Created by: J. Cornelius