Photos by ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Jack Guilliams (center), a health career teacher, works with students Cameron Ferguson (from left), Evelin Hernandez, Jaquon Lee and Aaron Brown on how to determine blood types by using samples.

After washing their hands, students look at them under a special light to see if they washed them correctly.

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It starts with a scenario: There's been a car accident, and a 4-year-old girl is injured. Four relatives have come to the hospital to donate blood, but none knows for certain if their blood types are compatible.

That's where the fifth-graders come in.

The 30 or so 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds have blood samples. In groups of four, they must determine each sample's type and whether it would be compatible with the victim's.

In a Roanoke Technical Education Center pilot summer program, fifth-graders participating in Roanoke's summer school programs are learning about different careers, and this week's lesson puts a focus on health and medical sciences -- one of the many career-oriented courses taught in the city's Gibboney Technical Center at Patrick Henry High School.

"It's one of those things where you plant the seed early for career opportunities that Roanoke city offers," said health and medical science teacher Kathy Duncan. Last year she was acting hall principal at the Gibboney center and was also one of the primary organizers of the career exploration program.

"There are career education opportunities out there," she continued. "They're already thinking, 'I really like that medical, I got to do well in math, I got to do well in science, I got to know how to read.' And it just keeps them going, keeps them moving forward."

In the five weeks of summer school, students were bused over to the Gibboney center once each week. In addition to the health and medical sciences, the rising sixth-graders got lessons in automotive technology, culinary arts, TV/video production and either cosmetology or public safety.

Duncan said the students seemed to enjoy the pure variety of what they were learning.

But at least one of the students had a favorite.

April Harris, 11, who will attend Woodrow Wilson Middle School in September, said the health and medical sciences cluster was definitely her favorite -- she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.

"I like this one the most because when I watch Animal Planet, this is just like it," April said excitedly. "So this is almost like trying it out for the first time to see what it's like, and I think I really want to be a vet."

Duncan said this summer's ROTEC program was the brainchild of Roanoke Superintendent Rita Bishop, who asked Duncan and ROTEC Principal Kimberly Williams to create a "5-5-5" curriculum -- five programs, five weeks, fifth-graders.

Bishop wanted to give young students a chance to think about all the options open to them.

"At this young age, they can do anything they want to," Duncan said. "If they work hard and they want it, the opportunities never end."

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