Teaching CO and WY Students the Importance of Organ, Eye and Tissue Donation

Students throughout Colorado and Wyoming are getting a new perspective on organ, eye and tissue donation and transplantation through Transplantation Science, an award-winning free program for 7^th through 12^th graders. The program gives students a better understanding of what it means to be a registered donor and how transplantation works.

While Colorado and Wyoming have some of the highest donor designation rates in the country, there are still more than 2,500 people waiting for a lifesaving transplant. For this reason, early education is crucial – so young people who are getting ready to get their first driver licenses will be educated before getting asked at the driver license office whether they’d like to register as donors.

The 50 to 90-minute workshops are available to schools in the Colorado and Wyoming Donor Alliance service area. Students can expect a typical Transplantation Science workshop to be hands-on with various stations each set up to cover a different topic related to tissue or organ transplantation, including:

• Which organs are transplantable and how they function in the body
• Examining real, plastinated organ and tissue specimens from the human body
• The conditions leading to the need for a transplant
• How organ allocation works, along with exercises to match example donors and recipients

Donor Alliance is a great enhancement to anatomy, health and biology programs. To learn more about Transplantation Science, visit our program page.