Sophomore and freshman health science students at Southwest Career and Technical Academy presented their public health emergency preparedness projects during the week of April 19, 2010. During class, students presented their knowledge about a specific public health emergency to provide awareness to other students.

“The topic my group chose was earthquakes. Learning about this topic was interesting because since we never have any here, I never had the knowledge about how to save myself if one were to happen,” said Freshman My Xu.

The different topics that students could have chosen from included flooding, earthquakes, Avian Influenza, school violence, wildfires, Ricin, H1N1, and food product recall for Salmonella and E-Coli. In each class period, each group had to have a different topic, so students could learn about being prepared for all disasters.

“I don’t believe that there was enough time to do the project, even though we had spring break to work on it also. Many people were gone over spring break and could not meet up with the group to work,” said freshman Brianna Yee.

Students were given three weeks to construct their project with their group of four. They were allowed to make videos, poster boards, skits, or whatever they wanted to make their project. The main guideline was that the presentation must be 8 to 11 minutes long.

“It was a good thing that teachers allowed us to use the video cameras during class. It let us work on our project with our group and not have to meet up after school or on the weekends. Also, not all students have cameras that can be used for their project at home, so it would be difficult to finish this project,” said sophomore Denny Kim.

Teachers, Ms. Jan Monroe and Mrs. Vicki Smith, provided students with Flip Video Cameras to record during class if needed. They also allowed students to use full class periods to complete projects.

“I think this project was very beneficial because by doing this project I found out may more ways to save myself, family, and friends if an earthquake were to happen here in Las Vegas,” said Xu.