Weekly roundup: Virtual surgeries, Earth Day, an e-sports championship and more

Our favorite story this week is about a 7-foot tablet with an iPad-like screen that’s helping students enrolled in Esperanza High’s Medical Sciences Academy perform virtual surgeries.

Students demonstrate the Anatomage Table
Students demonstrate the newly aquired Anatomage Table that will serve Esperanza High’s Medical Sciences Academy.

As we reported Tuesday, the device is called an Anatomage Table, and it offers life-size modeling of human muscular, skeletal, vascular and nervous systems based on imaging from cadavers. The high-tech acquisition, which was also covered by the Orange County Register, is just the latest example of how Orange County schools are blending hands-on technical skills with rigorous academics.

Esperanza High is the first high school in Orange County — and just the second in the state — to acquire an Anatomage Table. In fact, they can be found at only a handful of four-year universities in California.

“You can learn so much about how the human body works because this is so close to the real thing,” senior Maddy Galvin said.

Check out our story and photos in the OCDE Newsroom.

And here are some other education stories from the week ending April 27.

  • California’s teachers have become far more racially and ethnically diverse over the last 20 years, outpacing national rates. But, as EdSource reports, the diversity gap between teachers and students has barely closed, and in some ways it’s increased.
  • Artificial intelligence, a new wave of automation and the rise of the gig economy were among the topics discussed during a presentation on the “Future of Work” hosted by OCDE, OC Pathways and the Orange County Business Council.
  • On the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High shooting, students from several South Orange County schools gathered in Irvine for a rally to protest gun violence.
  • At its second annual Earth Day event, students from John Malcom Elementary School in the Capistrano Unified School District took part in a number of activities related to environmental awareness and sustainability.
  • About 1 in every 10 California students attends a charter school, according to new data from the state Department of Education.
  • It’s been nearly three years since the California Healthy Youth Act was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. To provide a better understanding of the law, the OCDE Newsroom compiled a list of common questions and answers.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with local education news stories by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroomsubscribing for emailed updates or following us on FacebookTwitter or Instagram.