Biomedical Program
This program allows young women to explore rigorous directed content, in the medical sciences, not available in most high school environments. Through a combination of course work, field experiences, and speakers, students explore a wide variety of college majors and post college careers. The program actively builds partnerships with hospitals and health care providers. It is our mission to bring a level of "real world" experiences not available in the classroom.
Program Overview
Catholic High offers a premier education to young women and our life science program is a strategic addition to our already strong academic content. The four-year Biomedical Program is designed to allow young women to explore a wealth of careers and college majors based on their interests and abilities in the research science and medical fields. This is accomplished with a variety of coursework that is not available in most high schools like:
- Epidemiology which focuses on not only the control of disease but also takes a social justice approach to the challenges of public health around the world
- Biotechnology which explores how cellular and biological processes can be harnessed to develop technologies and products to help improve our lives
- Bioethics which is based on a class taught at the Kennedy School of Ethics, Georgetown University that focuses on some of the most difficult moral challenges that we face in health, medicine, and emerging technologies
We take learning to next level by marrying biomedical scientific literacy with a hands-on/minds-on approach. For example:
- In Biomed Biology - students not only learn about mitosis but apply their knowledge to a cancer and chemotherapy experiment
- In Anatomy and Physiology - students not only learn about the integumentary system but practice various types of wound closure using synthetic skin (sutures, staples, surgical glue, etc.)
- In Biotechnology - students not only learn about biomolecules but they utilize a host of biochemical assays and molecular biology techniques like DNA fingerprinting, restriction enzyme analysis, bacterial transformation, and polymerase chain reaction to list just a few
- In Epidemiology - students not only learn about infectious disease but participate in a bioterrorism tabletop simulation and role-play
All Biomed students are required to complete their Senior Capstone Project which is embedded in the Bioethics class.
