On Wednesday, April 9, local high school students and faculty from the Career and Technical Education Center (CTEC) visited the Francis Center on Elon University’s campus to learn more about biomechanics through engaging activities.
More than 50 students and four high school teachers from Burlington joined Elon’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, Department of Exercise Science and Performing Arts students, staff and faculty to celebrate National Biomechanics Day, which has been held annually since 2016.
All the students who attended are on the health science track at CTEC, and the high school faculty were also health science teachers, so the event helped showcase potential endeavors for these students at Elon.
“They could see the campus, departments, and labs and what they could look like,” said Srikant Vallabhajosula, professor of physical therapy education. “When we train our volunteers, we tell them to explain the purpose of the activity at their station, some applications based on what they learned in their class and in their clinical experiences, how they’re seeing it being used or where it could be used, or how you can use these tests from the stations to evaluate health. We try to give a comprehensive perspective on the applications of the activities at the stations.”
The students were divided into four groups to work on different stations related to biomechanics. They included movement activities like measuring jumping, balance, heel-to-toe walking and strength. The high school students also saw a live demonstration of state-of-the-art technology like how a marker-less motion capture system works in the biomechanics lab, which can be applied for health and sports science fields.
“It was something fun and educating for them,” said Vallabhajosula. “The beauty of it was we had faculty members from exercise science and physical therapy departments, DPT students and undergraduate students as volunteers. It was nice that the high school students could see them as role models. It was a good mix of both volunteers who were showing how to do the stations, and the students who attended.”
Exercise Science faculty members, Jacob Gdovin and Matt Wittstein, along with physical therapy education faculty members Alys Giordano and Katy Bales, helped conduct the event.
“As health science educators, we value the opportunity to provide our students with hands-on learning opportunities. Our partnership with Elon University does just this! What an enriching day Biomechanics Day was for our students, to learn from professors and students in state-of-the-art labs through simulations is an experience our students will long remember,” said Terri Andrews, CTEC health science educator, who attended the event with her students.