Affton High School students enrolled in the Project Lead the Way Biomedical program have been receiving unparalleled hands-on experience this year, according to a district news release.

In January, the program hosted medical professionals to help students explore the central nervous system by investigating the anatomy of the brain. Paul H. Young, a neurosurgeon with St. Anthony’s Medical Center, Paul A. Young, an anatomy professor at St. Louis University Medical School, Julia C. Young, a pediatrician with SSM Preferred Pediatrics, and Lisa Carr, a neurosurgical registered nurse at St. Anthony’s Medical Center, visited the classroom and assisted the students with the examination of human brains and spinal cord.

Students worked in pairs while the professionals demonstrated the different anatomical differences between human and sheep specimens, the release stated.

Nicholas Rottler, a general surgery resident at St. Louis University Hospital, also visited the biomedical classes in February to discuss the anatomy of the eye.

While his work was displayed live on a large screen for the entire class to view, students again worked in pairs to dissect cow eyes at their stations. Rottler was able to discuss the anatomy of the cow’s eye step by step while comparing it to the human eye, the release stated.

“The eye is the window to the brain,” Rottler stated in the releasee. “It is a very important structure for surgeons and one of the first things we look at when someone comes in to an ER with trauma.”

Project Lead the Way, or PLTW, is the leading provider of rigorous and innovative Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, education programs used in middle and high schools across the United States.

The Affton School District offers PLTW curriculum in biomedical science and engineering at Affton High School, as well as engineering at Rogers Middle School.