Westside High School -- MAGNET - Health, Science and Technology

HEALTH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STRAND

Health, Science and Technology Strand

Program Information

The Health Science Technology strand is a four year program that allows students to investigate careers in the health professions field through specialized coursework and unique enrichment opportunities. The program has a partnership with Baylor College of Medicine. The school provides graduate students who pair up with Westside science teachers to enhance the classroom experience, the opportunity to apply for Baylor’s BIOS summer medical research program, as well a chance for students to visit Baylor College of Medicine and observe what medical school is like. The program also has visited Texas A&M’s Veterinary School, Texas Woman’s University nursing program, Memorial Hermann’s Trauma Unit, and St. Luke’s Hospital to view a surgery. Each year Westside organizes a Career Speaker Series which hosts professionals from various career areas. In the past Westside students have been privileged to hear a genetic counselor from UT Houston, an orthodontist from Embrace Orthodontics, a vet from West Houston Vet Clinic, and an MD/PhD candidate from Baylor College of Medicine.

Through the coursework students will receive CPR and First Aid certification. In the students’ senior year, most students will take Health Science Technology 2. In this course, students travel to various medical facilities twice per week for fieldwork experience. Students who are in the hospital program will participate in various rotations to learn about different areas of the hospital. Students can also opt to shadow in other medical facilities such as a veterinarian clinic, orthodontist’s office, chiropractor’s clinic and more. The alternative to HST 2 is Pharmacology. In this class students can receive a Pharmacy Technician Certification.

Many students in this strand are also actively involved in Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA). This national organization attends various competitions throughout the year and works in conjunction with another student group to sponsor Westside’s successful Blood Drive

Four Year Plan

Below is a sample 4 year plan for a student in the Health Science Technology strand. The level of each course is dependent on the student’s individual skill level. College Preparatory, Pre-Advanced Placement/Advanced Placement, and Gifted and Talented Pre-Advanced Placement/Advanced Placement are available. The courses shaded in grey are the Magnet courses for this strand.

	9^th grade	10^th grade	11^th grade	12^th grade
English	English 1	English 2	English 3	English 4
Math	Alg 1 or Geom	Geom or Alg 2	Alg 2 or Pre-Cal	Pre-Cal or Calc
History	World Geography or Human Geo.	World History	U.S. History	Eco/Gov’t
Science	Biology	Chemistry	Physics	Advanced Science
Magnet	Intro to Health Science Technology	Medmicro Biology and Pathology	Health Science Technology 1	Health Science Technology 2 or Pharmacology
Elective	Elective	Elective	Elective	Health Science Technology 2 or Elective
Elective	Elective	Elective	Elective	Elective

Required electives* include: 0.5 health, 1.5 PE, 1.0 Communication Application, 2.0 world language (must be of same language), 1.0 fine arts

*These required electives are subject to change based on changes by the state of Texas and HISD.

Students, who complete the full program, will receive 1.0 PE equivalent credit and only need an additional 0.5 PE credit. The students will also receive 0.5 health equivalent credit.