Bakersfield School awarded $513k grant for anatomy table, VR lab
Learning is about to get a whole lot cooler at Bakersfield School, thanks to a $513,000 federal grant the district was awarded to purchase new science and technology equipment for use in elementary through high school grades.
Among the most exciting purchases funded by the grant is an Anatomage table, a life-size, interactive 3D dissection and anatomy visualization system. The table uses real human and animal scans to replace physical cadavers, allowing students to virtually explore detailed anatomy, pathologies and simulated dissections and procedures on a touch-sensitive surface.
“It is an amazing tool that will engage kids and get them excited about learning...”
“...And not only students who want to be doctors or nurses, but also those who want to do research, medicine, therapies, pharmaceutical sales... There’s no end to the job experiences that this can expose kids to,” she told the Times. “It’s a way to bring excitement and another level of learning into the classroom and ultimately make kids want to come to school every day - ready to learn.”
Padgett said she first became aware of the Anatomage tables about five years ago and knew immediately she wanted to find a way for Bakersfield students to use one. This year, she found a grant program that allowed the $125,000 piece of equipment and related software to be incorporated into the budget.
The equipment is considered the most advanced real human-based 3D anatomy and medical system on the market today. It utilizes “Anatomage bodies,” which are digital slides built from frozen cadaver slices, segmented from real human bodies that were donated to science after death for research. Slides from animal cadavers are also used. The slices undergo an extensive reconstruction process to recreate each cadaver’s pre-mortem form in a 3D digital format.
“[The system] is made of millions of MRI slices from five different cadavers–a male, a female, a geriatric patient, a pregnant patient and an older adolescent,” Padgett explained. “One of them died of Alzheimer’s, so students will be able to analyze the brain tissue of a diseased patient. One died of lung cancer, so they can see a diseased lung compared to a healthy lung. There is a birth simulation where they can watch a birth and pull the skin back to see what happens during that process - how the baby’s body moves and how the mother’s body moves throughout the birth. It goes inside the brain, every organ...”
The digital board can be positioned vertically, to use as a teaching tool at the front of a classroom, or horizontally, allowing students to gather around the table and get a close-up view of the simulations.
Padgett said the equipment will be housed in the high school science department and used by teachers for biology, AP anatomy and physiology classes. She also expects middle school and elementary teachers will find ways to use it too, and they will be welcome to bring their students to the table to study different parts of the body.
When will students benefit from the new device? Padgett said the district plans to order the table as soon as the federal grant award is made public and funds are released, meaning it will likely be available during the current school year.
“We are really excited to have the opportunity to have this at Bakersfield - to be able to allow a teacher to peel back the skin, muscles, any tissue and see blood flow, vessels - or maybe just the nervous system, or just the organs, digestive system or cardiovascular system. It’s an amazing tool that will engage kids and get them excited about learning.”
Padgett said there aren’t many high schools who have the equipment, and it is more often found in pre-med programs and other specialty education. The only other one in the area is at Nixa High School, she said.
The grant will also fund a new virtual reality career and learning lab that is expected to be used by students at all grade levels.
The lab will include 10 virtual reality headsets that create an immersive simulated world by covering students’ eyes with a headset like the one pictured at the top of this page. Inside each headset is a screen displaying realistic 3D visuals that track head and body movement in real time, making users feel immersed in the simulation.
For high school students planning their path after graduation, Padgett said the VR lab will provide access to thousands of career and technical-based simulations.
“Everything from architecture, engineering, technology, art, broadcasting, visual arts, agriculture services, business management, human services...” she said. “There are virtual reality simulations that allow kids to experience a day in the life of someone with severe anxiety or someone with autism or what it’s like to experience a psychotic episode from the point of view of the patient, allowing them to better understand the experiences of other individuals.”
Available simulations include learning how to fly an aircraft, NASA flight simulation, working in an ambulance or emergency room, culinary arts field, IT careers, operating room experiences, orchard preservation, newspaper printing, children’s book illustration, plumbing, manufacturing, robotics, HVAC, flight deck operations for the Navy, multiple types of welding and thousands of other options.
Students can also take simulated tours of factories and learn detailed production processes for companies such as Tesla, John Deere Tractors or the FedEx World Hub in Memphis, Tennessee.
On the education side, the lab offers simulations that can be integrated directly into classroom instruction.
“It’s unbelievable the things that are offered. There are VR simulations for geography, ancient history, science, math, art... It also includes human anatomy– what happens inside your body, brushing your teeth... which can be used while teachers are studying those kinds of things in class...
“There is a space walk, sharks at risk, rainforest, climbing the ocean floor, a solar eclipse, botany and hydroponics, vertical farming for people who live in big cities, earth and space, civil rights, life science, history, trench warfare... just everything. It’s going to be a way to really bring learning alive in the classroom and get these students engaged,” Padgett said.
The grant will also be used to upgrade the school’s distance learning equipment, allowing Bakersfield students to livestream classes from other schools or community colleges in real time - as well as help update and replace some of the teacher’s interactive boards in classrooms.
Padgett says all of the upgrades are aimed at engaging students and providing better tools that support their education- and life beyond it.
“It’s a way to really bring learning alive in the classroom and get them engaged and excited and ultimately, want to come to school every day, ready to learn,” she said.
“I’ve told my teachers before that it’s my hope that there is a kid in this building, in this district somewhere, that will someday find a cure for cancer or Alzheimer’s or diabetes or something else... all because their love of learning was sparked right here.”