Doctor/Nurse Fair : Thomas Jefferson University

Taking place in Philly, there was a science fair, spread out between multiple buildings. There were different topics : the science of cooking, teddy bear clinic (younger kids), science after school, etc. But, there was also a doctor and nurse clinic where they would teach you different aspects of being a doctor and use different tools. This was spread out over 4 levels and you would walk freely, inspecting each station.

On the first floor, there were two topics. Just for entertainment, there was a tank full of tiny shrimp, really tiny shrimp. The actual learning topic was about hygiene. It was a small activity where you would order which objects you thought has more germs than a toilet seat. I left three out since those didn't seem like they would have more germs than a toilet seat. The truth was that all of the objects had more germs, whether it was 5 times or 4,000 times. The one that had the most germs was a carpet. I ordered that somewhat last.

The second floor we went to had three stations. They weren't really about doctor's and nurse's, but they were really interesting. The first one had 8 glasses of water and each of them is filled with a different amount of water. When you dip your finger into water and rub each glass, they each make different frequencies. I even got to play Happy Birthday on them. The second station had copper rings, magnets and batteries. If you attached the magnets to a battery and put it inside the copper wire, it was pulled along the wire. And the last station, was about forensics. They showed us an instrument they used for DNA samples. You could suck it in and push it out into a gel. That was kind of like something we had learned in one of my clubs.

The last floor we went to had back to back hour sessions. We went in for the one o' clock session. The first topic they talked about was CPR. They had mannequins laid out on the floor so we could practice doing CPR. They talked about when you should use it and when you shouldn't use it.

Then, we went to a room where they had a "patient" and they were talking about the heart. We talked about the different valves, how to tell whether the heart beat doesn't sound right, and how to check the heart through an ultrasound. The last topic was in another room. It was for the lungs, the trachea, and the esophagus. They showed us how you could insert a movable camera inside the trachea of an actual human (when their unconscious) and see all the different parts. We talked about what people with asthma do and showed us another tool to help people breathe. That was the end of that session.

There was the option of an ambulance to show us different things, but it was called out to another emergency. We all went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant that had really good food. Then, we went home.