On Thursday, 19 October, a group of Years 3-5 students donned scrubs to perform an ‘operation’ using a surgery robot at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse cancer hospital. Ms Bosch ( STEM teacher) and Mrs Spiroglou (LOTE teacher) accompanied the 16 boys.

These keen young scientists visited Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and the Royal Prince Alfred Institute of Academic Surgery as part of the school’s “Year 3 Scientia” (high potential learners) and STEM club programs.

The students first visited the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Institute of Academic Surgery where robotic surgeons and urologists Associate Professor Ruban Thanigasalam and Dr Scott Lesley spoke to them about what it’s like to be a surgeon.

The students practised laparoscopic skills and cardio pulmonary resuscitation and tried their hands at robotic suturing all on simulation equipment of course.

The students then visited Chris O’Brien Lifehouse theatres to be introduced to the da Vinci Xi Surgical System, after demonstrations by A/Prof Thanigasalam and Dr Lesley, the schoolboys played a giant version of the board game Operation.

“Although these young scientists have got small and nimble hands, the robot has a much wider range of movement when bending and rotating than the human hand, enabling the students to perform better and more precise ‘operations’,” says A/Prof Thanigasalam.

The visit was inspiring for the boys some quotes on the day:

“I want to be a surgeon one day because it’s kind of like playing video games that saves people’s lives in real life” – Gil Gracie (8 years Year 3)

“The most fascinating rooms and robots at the Centre were the DaVinci robot and the micro labs because they were part of complex operations. It made me wonder how this technology came to exist and its developmental stages.” – Evan Grillakis (9 years Year 3)

“It was so cool and amazing to see such new and advanced technology that could save so many lives! It is an honour to be one of the first 16 children to test these out.” – Kian Chan, (11 years old, Year 5)

“It was an amazing experience seeing robotic arms moving while a person was sitting a metre away controlling them. I particularly enjoyed operating the simulation machines to do drills like stretching rubber bands over small models. Both the manual and robotic exercises required a lot of hand dexterity and concentration. This is because you could only look at a screen not the actual model while moving the arms. I was fascinated with the advanced medical technology.” – Nathan Chong (10 years old Year 4)

Lindsay Bosch
STEM Teacher