Granite Falls Middle students work hands-on in new CTE class

Alyssa Potter’s brow creased in concentration as she examined the sample of artificial skin, deciding how to draw artificial blood from the single, protruding vein.

Potter eased the needle in. She did not successfully draw any of the blue artificial blood, but it was only her first attempt.

Determined, she tried again.

It took a few attempts, but finally, an excited Potter drew a “blood sample.”

Potter, a student at Granite Falls Middle School, was participating in one of the health modules in her career and technical education (CTE) class on Wednesday along with her fellow eighth graders.

Tables were spaced throughout the lab, each labeled with one of about 13 Paxton/Patterson lab modules simulating a variety of careers, including auto mechanics, emergency medical services (EMS), veterinary services, dentistry, and cosmetology.

Paxton/Patterson offers a CTE program that is hands-on, allowing students to work with real tools they would use in the field. There is a model engine that students can disassemble and reassemble for the mechanics module, plus the tools required. For criminology, there is a real fingerprinting kit.

The only thing in the lab that was not real was the AED for the EMS kit, said CTE teacher Heather Edwards.

AEDs, or automated external defibrillators, are portable devices used to check an individual’s heart rhythm and restart the heart using an electric shock in cases of cardiac arrest.

“This program is designed for students to explore as many different career paths as they can to feed into the high school programs,” Edwards said.

Edwards said she is working with high school teachers to establish those career paths by learning what courses she should advise students to take.

Before now, Granite Falls Middle’s CTE program consisted of three things: robotics, carpentry, and computer science. Edwards was in charge of computer science and primarily taught students to use Microsoft programs.

“I did keyboarding in sixth grade, which was painful because they were already typing,” Edwards said.

Edwards said she approached the CTE director and told them she wanted to try something new.

From there, Paxton/Patterson labs were implemented.

Paxton/Patterson offers numerous modules. Chief Information Officer Nathan Pope said the modules at Granite Falls Middle were strategically chosen as career paths students could realistically pursue in college.

Edwards said she wishes her eighth graders were sixth graders so they could experience the labs for more than one year.

“Some kids really wanted to do transportation maintenance because that’s what they know,” Edwards said. “I said, ‘Let’s try to push them out of their comfort zone.’ … They may find out that they really like nursing or something completely (different) than what they thought.”

Learning what they dislike is also valuable, Edwards said. One of her students is currently in the EMS module and is not enjoying it, she said.

“He was like, ‘It’s really hard to be a 911 operator,’” Edwards said. “He hadn’t even thought through that process.”

Gamewell Middle also has Paxton/Patterson. Pope said Caldwell County Schools has also secured funding to implement the labs at William Lenoir Middle.