Eastlake High School students tackle real-world issues in ‘start-ups’ course

More than 30 Eastlake High School students were tasked to find solutions to real-world issues the EvergreenHealth Clinic is currently working to solve. Students presented their solutions at the Dec. 17 Sammamish Chamber of Commerce meeting.

By Megan Campbell • December 29, 2015 2:21 pm
Eastlake High School seniors Jerry Lau and Connor McNeal display their solution to EvergreenHealth’s need for a pain management education tool. McNeal holds a tablet that runs the program he and his team created for nurses to use.
Eastlake High School seniors Jerry Lau and Connor McNeal display their solution to EvergreenHealth’s need for a pain management education tool. McNeal holds a tablet that runs the program he and his team created for nurses to use.

As EvergreenHealth CEO Bob Malte said: “Experience is the best teacher.”

This rings true with more than 30 Eastlake High School students who were tasked to find solutions to real-world issues the EvergreenHealth Clinic is currently working to solve.

For Connor McNeal, a senior at Eastlake, that solution equated to 22 hours of coding to integrate a pain algorithm into Evergreen’s current software.

“It really challenged me,” McNeal said. “It’s fun and rewarding.”

McNeal’s team, which included Laura Brockway, Cory Flynn and Jerry Lau, were asked to find a way for EvergreenHealth to better deliver pain-management education. The students’ solution integrates with the clinic’s current technologies.

This challenge was one of several Eastlake students in the “Sammamish Start-Ups” course faced this fall.

The Lake Washington School District Superintendent Traci Pierce said the Eastlake course is one of many “signature programs” throughout the district that pairs students with business professionals to solve real-world problems. It allows students to put their knowledge to the test.

In all, during the Dec. 17 Sammamish Chamber of Commerce meeting, three groups of students presented their solutions to the problems posed by EvergreenHealth officials. The other two solutions included an interactive map and a potential partnership with Delta Air Lines to list travel medications likely needed before visiting various destinations.


 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Megan Campbell, Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter
Students from the Eastlake High School “Sammamish Start-Ups” course pose for a photo with teachers Brittanie and Scott Petersen and EvergreenHealth CEO Bob Malte after the Dec. 17 Sammamish Chamber of Commerce meeting.

 

“They’re brilliant ideas and the brilliance comes in the simplicity,” Malte said. These solutions are ones EvergreenHealth plans to implement.

The signature programs in the district developed about three years ago.

This is the first year such a course has been taught at Eastlake High.

Teachers Brittanie and Scott Petersen pitched the course to the Sammamish Chamber last spring. Brittanie Petersen teaches business and marketing, while her husband of 10 years teaches engineering and computer science. This is the first time they’ve taught a course together.

There are three, what’s called, “pathways” students can follow during their studies at Eastlake: business, engineering and science. To get into the Petersens’ start-ups course, the students, usually seniors, have had to take at least one course in those pathways.

Prior to this course, there was “no opportunity to blend those skills together in an academic setting,” Brittanie Petersen said.

Out of all the district’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) significant programs, this is the largest, with 34 students enrolled, she said.