Tenth-grade anatomy and physiology students from Darnell-Cookman School of the Medical Arts recently performed a mock surgery and watched the dissection of a human cadaver cranium at Medtronic, Inc., a leading developer of products to treat people with diseases of the ear, nose and throat.

Medtronic is also a business partner of the school's. Bo Lewis, the senior director of marketing for the Jacksonville Medtronic office, first heard about Darnell-Cookman from a newspaper article. He hadn't realized that Jacksonville had a medical arts school, but knew the Medtronic facility could be useful for the students. Lewis got in touch with the school to find out how they could have a partnership.

"There are not many opportunities for high school students to see things like real cadaver tissue, or to have access to people who have experience in the operating room performing neurosurgery or sinus surgery like our staff has," said Lewis. "Visiting Medtronic provides these students with a unique experience in the medical field."

The students recently completed a six-week unit on the nervous system, and during the field trip to Medtronic, spent time in a hands-on workshop using different type of medical instruments to suction and remove simulated sinus tissue from a grapefruit, as well as use a drill to remove pieces of an eggshell.

Students also spent time in a neurosurgery cadaver dissection studying surgical approaches to tumors of the ear and brain tumors on the skull base.