ST. LOUIS – A common hospital scenario – how to alleviate anxiety for children undergoing surgery – was the focus of a six-week STEMathon for students in grades six through eight. Christian Brothers College (CBC) High School and Mercy collaborated to support a STEMathon, similar to a hackathon, for area middle and high school students, offering a unique opportunity to contribute to health care solutions, fostering both collaboration skills and the intersection of technology and health care.
A hackathon is an event lasting from a few hours to days or weeks, where individuals and teams collaborate intensively to create innovative solutions to specific challenges using technology. It’s a combination of “hack,” meaning creative problem solving (not illegal hacking), and marathon, indicating the event’s intensive nature.
CBC, Incarnate Word Academy and St. Joseph’s Academy high school students mentored the STEM teams in grades sixth through eighth from nine area Catholic schools. Enterprise Holdings research and development team trained the high school mentors in the process of developing innovative solutions.
Planned and facilitated by CBC, recognized as an International Technology and Engineering Educators Association STEM School of Excellence, the STEMathon was supported by Mercy’s nursing informatics team to ensure participants understood how technology is used in health care settings. The event was funded by the Josh Seidel Memorial Foundation.
“This event furthers CBC’s commitment to fostering future leaders in science, technology, engineering and math and is a great example of our innovative community outreach programs,” said Phillip Stapleton, CBC educational technology coordinator. “With Mercy’s support both in the scenario and providing students a better understanding of technology in health care, we were able to give the teams a very real-world scenario to tackle.”
Chris Greer, Mercy’s director of data and analytics insight, attended the finalist presentation on Nov. 16 as a guest judge. The winning team - Holy Infant School Team #2 - was invited to Mercy Hospital St. Louis to present their solution and tour the Mercy Kids pediatric spaces.
The winning team created "Health Bear," a teddy bear customized to each patient and programmed with a beating heart to calm patients. In conjunction with the bear, the team's idea included creating a "game board" style checklist to keep young patients excited about each treatment or test they may need during their health care journey.
“This is a remarkable example of our faith-driven commitment to community service, as it brings together multiple professionals with diverse backgrounds to make a meaningful impact on the educational development of children. It’s an amazing opportunity for student-led STEM teams to participate in a STEMathon using a real-life scenario,” said Tracy Breece, Mercy Technology Services executive director of nursing informatics. “We hope it opened the students’ eyes to the diverse career opportunities within health care and the impactful role of informatics in transforming patient care.”
