SCS students vet critters in science class

SANDPOINT — Instructors in this class use a tortoise to make learning a hair faster.

Michelle Kensbock stands in front of a class of a dozen seventh-grade science students at the North Idaho Animal Hospital as an African spur-thighed tortoise ambles on the floor.

Where is the animal’s vertebrae, she asks.

The students from the Sandpoint Charter School who sit on the floor in a half circle think a moment before piping up.

“The shell is its vertebrae,” someone says.

Check.

The inner shell is fused to the tortoise’s vertebrae and ribs, Kensbock explains.

As part of a program called Science Bridge Project, students got a close-up view Tuesday of a few vertebrates, that they might not be lucky enough to see, or touch, in the wild.

A red-tailed boa, indigenous to South America, a leopard tortoise, also from the deserts of Africa and a Ferruginous hawk from southern Idaho represent vertebrates in the program meant to make science practical and fun.

Dr. Robert Pierce, one of the hospital’s veterinarians, started the program a few years ago with his brother-in-law, also a veterinarian.

 In an effort to show teens how science is applied daily in their community, the duo worked hand-in-hand with students and teachers at Lake Pend Oreille School District.

Although the program hibernated for a year, it was pulled out of the den recently as the vet hospital invited local science classes to visit its 320 South Ella Ave. facility for lessons in the laboratory and the surgery, as well as zoology lessons on the floor of the community room.

“Veterinary medicine is the perfect venue for kids interested in this stuff,” Dr. Pierce said. “It has all the hard science, but also the fluffy animals.”

Using math to calculate doses of medicine, employing high-tech computer and lab equipment and using simple instruments like microscopes, students gather and analyze data and figure out problems.

“This is science at its best,” Pierce said. “It opens a portal and we can pour some real world learning in.”

For Valerie Bernard, who teaches science at the charter school, being allowed access to real-world training gives her students instruction they would not otherwise be subject to.

“They do lab activities here that we can’t do in our school,” she said.

With the assistance of the animal hospital, students have watched surgeries, dissected a fetal pig, extracted DNA from plants and a cow thymus, and gotten to know a variety of animals that pass through the hospital’s doors.

Kenny Kovalchuk, 13, is considering a job in a high-tech medical field.

He learned about animal classifications today, he said.

“It was cool to see different examples,” he said. “Birds, snake, tortoise.”

The animal hospital teams with Bonner General in some of its lessons and it hopes to expand classes next school year. Donations support the program, Pierce said, and the program is always looking for new ways to offset costs.

“We really need to improve our country’s interest and expertise in science,” Kensbock said. “This is a tremendous way to accomplish that goal.”

To donate to the program contact the animal hospital at ask@idahovet.com, or call 265-5700.