Pitching in all fall, Dr. Dennis Weise tapped his years of expertise as an ophthalmologist to teach Therapeutic Careers students at the Career Tech Center.
A long-term sub winding up his stint Friday, Weise guided the high school juniors and seniors through a virtual field trip to an autopsy hosted by Ohio State University. His expertise in the classroom provided six days of lessons related to the event.
Weise also taught how to properly patch an eye with a minor injury, requiring students to practice on each other, and aided them during in-depth studies of all the body systems.
For two months, students were immersed in Weise's talent and training.
"As building principal, when you get into a situation where you have a staff member out for some period of time, you wonder what's going to happen in the classroom,” said Jason Jeffrey. "[With Dr. Weise] we've really been able to make lemonade out of a situation not very good.”
Students who aspired to careers in medicine relished the opportunity to learn from a retired doctor who practiced in Traverse City for decades.
"It helped a lot because he added the knowledge of a doctor,” said Brad Rosinksi, a junior from Glen Lake High School who will pursue a career as a nurse, physician's assistant or doctor. "In the past two months, I've learned so much about anatomy, memorized 350 medical terms and the autopsy was awesome.”
Students divided into teams for the broadcast, each tracking a body system during the procedure. Each team compiled their findings into a report that included results from the external, gross, histological and toxicological examinations.
"They did really well, they got into it,” noted Weise, who achieved his specialty by completing four years of medical school, a one-year internship and then three years of additional training.
The students also wrote their own autopsy protocol and determined the cause of death, presenting their conclusions to the class in a PowerPoint presentation.
"When we got to the autopsy, we knew right away that the guy had had a stroke because of the embolism,” said "brain team” Allie Robinson, a junior at Traverse City Central High School who plans to be a registered nurse. "This program is a lot more than I expected, I thought we would just be taking temps.”
Kelley Tolle, a registered nurse who is a paraprofessional in the Therapeutic Careers program, was thrilled to have Weise in her classroom. In fact, as with all programs in the Career Tech Center, all teachers must have at least two years of work experience in their field. Weise's extra depth of training and experience was a treat for everyone.
"We tried to take advantage of Dr. Weise's skills,” noted Tolle, a graduate of the program.
Teaching is not new to Weise, who for years taught medical interns and externs, the latter medical students in the field of ophthalmology. More recently he has taught human biology at Northwestern Michigan College.
Working with high school students still finding their career path and bringing a wide range of interests and talents provided different challenges.
"A medical student knows they want the material and has a drive for it and takes notes on every word I say,” said Weise, adding of some of his Therapeutic Careers students: "Some announced they want to go on.”
Tolle noted that her standard reply to the age-old student query — 'Why do I have to learn this?' — fielded by all teachers is simple:
"Pretty much everything they learn here is something they are going to use in the future,” she said.