Canfield students perform simulated C-sections

By AMANDA TONOLI

atonoli@vindy.com

CANFIELD

Canfield High School students performed simulated cesarean sections for a child-development class Tuesday afternoon.

Each student group was given a packet of a plastic scalpel, a “bag” of IV fluids, a suction tool, a towel and more.

The student who acted as the patient wore a suit lined with felt layers to represent a pregnant woman.

Students “cut” through the internal felt layers of a woman’s stomach to get their babies out. One student group delivered twins.

Senior student Halle Schneider said she did a lot of learning about all the different ways a baby can be delivered.

“It’s much different to do it in such a hands-on way,” she said. “You get the full picture of what would go on in a surgery.”

Halle said this helps her because she wants to major in pre-med in college.

“I never learned this much in-depth in high school,” Halle said. “It was creative. ... You could tell she put a lot of work into it.”

Halle was referring to Angela Alexandrides, Canfield family and consumer science teacher.

Alexandrides said she spent a minimum of five hours putting together the project for her students.

Madison Schrock, also a senior student, said Alexandrides’ method made the cesarean

section interesting to learn about.

“It’s cool to take a class in high school and learn about things in real life,” she said.

She said she learned how serious of a procedure a C-section is, and getting to see the various

layers of felt simulating the inside of the human body was interesting.

Alexandrides said simply that it’s just part of the state standards.

“When I have classes like this, I really don’t like the kids to sit and take notes,” she said. “I like them to be interactive. ... All of these kids said they at least want to be parents someday. so they are going to go through this.”

The idea stemmed from a nationwide talk between family and consumer science teachers

who bounce ideas off of one another about how to best teach students in the subject.

“When they do hands-on, they learn better and they learn more, and I think they had a lot of fun,” Alexandrides said.