Lake Shore High students monitor ‘threatened’ island

 

By Julie Stevens

C & G Staff Writer

     The distance learning lab at Lake Shore High School became home base for emergency response teams attempting to save the inhabitants on the Caribbean island of Montserrat Feb. 12.

     During what was called e-Mission: Operation Montserrat, Kennedy Middle School seventh-graders prepared for an impending catastrophe using online curriculum as part of a project blending science and math and team work.

     On Sept. 4, 1996, the island of Montserrat was the world’s most perilous place when two potentially catastrophic events — an awakening volcano and a Category 3 hurricane — simultaneously convened upon the island.

     The Soufrière Hills volcano, which had been dormant for 400 years, began a series of devastating eruptions that destroyed most of south Montserrat, including the capital and the main port.

     A majority of the population was evacuated, and some two-thirds of the island’s land area was rendered uninhabitable.

     To reenact the day’s events, students split into four emergency response teams — hurricane, volcano, evacuation or communication — and worked closely with officials from mission control at the Challenge Learning Center in Wheeling, West Virginia.

     Kennedy science teacher Debbie Zolynsky and Bruce Pawlawski, Instructional Technology Specialist for Lake Shore Public Schools spearheaded the two-day project that involved four science classes.

     “This is the coolest thing they will ever do,” Zolynsky said. “When we (she and Pawlawski) first saw this, we were blown away.”

     Zolynsky said each student was required to fill out a job application to become a part of the project.

     The groups prepared for several weeks for “mission day” by collecting and analyzing earth science data about the events.

     The teams used science knowledge and math skills to avert possible disaster. In the distance-learning lab, the students kept in constant communication via video teleconferencing with mission control, which is the satellite system “monitoring” the island’s volcano and hurricane data.

     Zolynsky said the volcano and hurricane teams rallied to analyze the data and determine the risks to the people of the island. Their analyses were then presented to the evacuation team, which then determined a plan of action for saving the islanders.

     Seventh-grader Eleanor Naud, leader of the evacuation team, said it was imperative that the members of each group worked closely together to get complete the job at hand and save lives.

     “There were a lot of people in danger,” Naud said. “I really have a greater respect for the people who do this.”

     Zolynsky said the atmosphere that day was as if the event was actually taking place.

     “The kids are so into it; they feel like it was actually happening,” she said.

     The respective teams received data from mission control about either the volcano or the hurricane every four minutes. Once the data was received, the students calculate the direction of the hurricane to determine when and where it will hit or the rising or falling temperatures of the volcano to determine whether or not it would erupt.

     Tiffany Wisniewski, a member of the Volcano Team, said in addition to being able to calculate under stressful conditions, each group had to depend on the other group’s abilities.

     “There’s a lot of teamwork involved,” said Wisniewski, 12. “It’s not really that hard. We’ve been practicing a lot.”

     The evacuation team then had to figure out how they would transport the people of the island, how many modes of transportation would be needed and the safest route to each destination.

     “Without the people on my team we wouldn’t have been able to do this,” said Naud. “It took a long time to figure out what to do. You really have to think a lot about what you are doing. But without the volcano team and the hurricane team, the evacuation team would have been lost.”

     It was that teamwork that proved successful, said Zolynsky.

     “They saved everyone,” she said.

     You can reach Julie Stevens at jstevens@candgnews.com