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Arlington High seniors present mobile medical-lab project for emergency response
Summary
Two Arlington High School seniors presented a biomedical science capstone project designing a mobile medical bus to triage and stabilize patients after a building collapse; the class provides CTE credit and emphasizes ethics, triage and practical equipment choices.
Marilee Herman, principal at Arlington High School, introduced seniors Elliot and Caitlin, who presented a biomedical science class project in which students designed a mobile medical lab — a converted medical bus intended to stabilize and triage patients at an urban building collapse.
Herman told the school board that the biomedical science course provides a Career and Technical Education (CTE) credit and counts as a third year of laboratory science. “By completing this, they get their CTE credit. It's also a 3rd year of lab science,” she said.
The student presenters described a hypothetical scenario: an urban building collapse at rush hour in which a bus-based mobile medical facility would be used because tents or large trailers would be difficult to place near the scene. They said their design included a recovery area, triage/waiting area, treatment space, medical supplies cabinets and a small non-urgent care area.
They planned a staffing model of four medical personnel — a paramedic, an emergency medical physician, a triage nurse and an IV therapist — and said the bus would carry equipment intended to stabilize patients for transfer to a hospital. Equipment listed included oxygen tanks, IV supplies and monitors, basic pain medications, allergic-reaction treatments and supplies to treat overdoses, as well as stretchers, blankets and basic food items for low blood-sugar events.
Student presenters explained the project’s triage logic: they prioritized an unconscious patient with head trauma first, followed by a 42-year-old post-crash patient with possible concussion symptoms, then less-urgent breathing difficulty and a sore-arm complaint. They emphasized that the bus’s role was to stabilize urgent patients and transfer them to full medical facilities for extended care.
The students also described ethics work built into the project: teams had to set triage criteria and justify the moral framework behind prioritization decisions. Herman and the students said the unit includes a gallery-walk presentation for peer review and critique.
Board members praised the students’ work; a district critical-care nurse in the audience confirmed the students’ triage priorities. The presentation illustrated an applied learning project intended to bridge classroom learning, workforce pathways and practical emergency-response issues.
