Pupils at East Launceston Primary School were treated to a visit from the Royal Flying Doctor Service on Tuesday, with their Look! Up in the Sky educational program.
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The children learned about the Royal Flying Doctors Service’s history, mission and activities, heard some real-life rescue stories, and hopped inside the fuselage to play doctors.
The plane is the same size and design as a real flying doctor plane, and with a flight simulator in the cockpit and the body fitted out with stretchers and medical equipment.
Royal Flying Doctors Tasmania education officer Jocelyn McLean said the simulator let the pupils pretend to fly the plane, be a patient, and be a doctor.
“The highlight is definitely getting on the plane and getting to touch everything,” she said.
“They’re so conditioned to not being able to touch things that the first time you say, ‘the machine’s beeping, do you want to fix that?’ they don’t want to touch anything, so it’s about actually getting them in there and playing and working in the space.”
This is the last week of the flying doctor simulation’s tour of Tasmania, after visiting Burnie and the West Coast, Hobart, and the East Coast, before it heads back to the mainland via the Spirit of Tasmania.
“Unfortunately they can’t fly this one over – got to take the slow road,” said Ms McLean.
The Royal Flying Doctors Service have also released an app, with four games that focus on health education.
“The kids can play games like brushing Tassie devils’ teeth, free to download from the app store,” she said.
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