Launch Pad: Session 4, Week 5

Welcome to the fifth week of the LP Newsletter! 

During Genre this week, we finalized our very last draft and got our podcasts greenlit. 

On Monday, we separated into groups of two or three people and gave feedback on each other’s second recorded version, focusing on clarity of speaking, sound effects, and Organization. On Tuesday, we wrote a description for our podcasts and completed our final podcast draft. The description was a short 200-word paragraph that described us and our podcast. We also asked younger learners to listen to and give feedback on our podcasts. On Thursday, we gathered in two groups and began the greenlighting process. During the greenlighting process, other learners listened to the podcast episode and either approved or disapproved of your episode based on how well it fit the requirements. 

Quest was very fun and hands-on, as usual, this week. We started the week off by getting our own diseases, which we had to learn all about and then create a backstory for a patient with said disease. We researched tests, scans, symptoms, and treatments for the diseases we got to develop our patient stories. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we followed up on this story by meeting with our quest groups and playing patient-doctor roles. If you were the patient, you would give the patient story you made to your doctor so they could figure out what you have and give you treatment. If you were the doctor, you would research and take tests or scans to learn more about the patient to diagnose and treat them. 

If you remember, last Thursday, Sam DeMaria (Jack’s father) came in and spoke about his experience in the medical field as an anesthesiologist. This week, he invited us to his workplace at Mount Sinai Hospital and shared some cool things with us. First, we saw how medical students learned to intubate patients through dummies and practiced doing it ourselves. We also saw an ultrasound machine and learned how to use it. The most interesting activity by far was the advanced test dummy. It created its heartbeat, and with Sam's guidance, we learned how to properly assess someone dying and how a professional might handle them.  

Being in a hospital like that was super interesting. I learned a lot about medicine during this visit, and I’m sure everybody else did, too. This is probably one of my favorite field trips because it was so hands-on and interesting the entire time.