Cool-E Welcomes Girl Scouts at The Texas Heart Institute

The Texas Heart Institute Welcomes San Jacinto Council Girl Scouts to Project Heart

On Saturday, April 6, 2024, Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts from across the Greater Houston area joined employees of The Texas Heart Institute and The Texas Heart Institute Center for Cardiovascular Care for a morning of STEM learning. This special collaborative event with the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council welcomed girls, their parents, and troop leaders for educational activities and demonstrations in The Institute’s Denton A. Cooley Auditorium.

Throughout their visit, the girls got an overview of diverse aspects of cardiovascular medicine and heart health. Education team members and volunteers led the girls through exercises from the Project Heart curriculum, which explores heart anatomy, the function of the cardiovascular system, and the importance of healthy eating and exercise. Scientists, engineers, and healthcare professionals provided insights into potential career paths in cardiovascular science and medicine; they also helped explain the importance of basic science research and biomedical engineering to the development of new treatments and devices to help patients with cardiovascular disease. Girls even got a glimpse into the anatomy of the beating human heart through a special cardiac sonography demonstration.

Experts included team members from The Center for Cardiovascular Care, the Center for Women’s Heart & Vascular Health, the Cardiomyocyte Renewal Laboratory, Electrophysiology Clinical Research & Innovations, the Innovative Device & Engineering Applications (IDEA) Lab, Molecular Cardiology Research, and Regenerative Medicine Research.

The Institute’s robot mascot “Cool-E” added extra fun to the learning by posing with the girls for photos.

The day also provided a way for the girls to make progress toward their goals: Juniors could apply the morning’s activities to their Staying Fit badge, while Brownies worked toward their My Best Self badge.

“We are always incredibly excited to partner with the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council to host this day of STEM innovation and heart-health education,” said Keri Sprung, MBA, The Institute’s Vice President for Education and THI Women’s Center director. “In addition to directly benefitting the girls that attended today, we hope that troop leaders will be able to incorporate our Project Heart curriculum into future activities for their entire troop.”