SAN FRANCISCO, California. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – More than seven million children in the United States miss 15 days or more during the school year. The problem is more worrying for seriously ill children who are hospitalized and fear being denied a year. To prevent this from happening, a hospital built its own school.
Not all students would describe school as fun. But for 15-year-old Reuben Roldan and his classmates, that’s exactly what it’s all about.
Roldan says: “Honestly, this is my highlight of the day. »
Roldan is a patient at Stanford Children’s Health and has been attending its fully accredited school for the past year. It became a positive point during his health journey.
“It’s a safe place where they can just be kids,” says Kathy Ho, education coordinator at Stanford Children’s Health School.
Kathy Ho says the main goal is to make them feel like they are not patients at school.
Ho explains: “What we’re doing is normalizing the experience, giving them all these childhood experiences that any normal child will have. »
This starts by making sure they receive class work that meets all of their educational requirements. And it took great ingenuity to create the science lab program.
“The problem is that when you are in the hospital, there are a lot of restrictions. You can’t have open flames,” says Ho.
This problem became the launching pad for LAB SCI. It’s a collaboration between the hospital and students at Stanford University to develop educational and slightly silly labs for children.
Lab Sci volunteer Hana Buabbas says: “We have to adapt. There’s one that comes to mind that uses counting colors in an M&M box.
Stanford medical student Ryan Sathianthen says, “And we’re trying to think of really fun, collaborative ways for students to work together and really be engaged. »
Medical student Ryan Santhinatha says volunteering was his way of giving back to the school he attended years earlier while undergoing treatment for cancer.
Maceo Alvarez, a patient at Stanford Children’s Health School, says, “It doesn’t feel like learning, but you learn a lot.” »
And that’s the main thing!
Stanford Children’s Health’s School strives to share its science curriculum with other schools across the country. So far, 30 labs have been created, all using items easily found in a grocery store. This year the school celebrates its 100th anniversary.
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