Fourth grade students at the Allen County Intermediate Center learned
about caves and how to safety explore caves last week as part of a continuing
educational partnership with the Mammoth Cave National Park.
Each month, rangers from the National Park visit ACIC to present
educational programs to students. This trip included a special visit from
Colorado-based CaveSim. The cave simulator was made possible through funding
provided by Friends of Mammoth Cave, a non-profit group which supports special
projects for Mammoth Cave.
“We hope to teach the kiddos about caving practices,” explained Jennifer
Shackelford, an environmental education ranger from Mammoth Cave. “We know that
there are a lot of caves on farms around here and we want to make sure the kids
understand the proper safety precautions so that they will not go into a cave
on their own. Also, we are teaching them about taking care of caves as well.”
Students learned about crawl space by given the opportunity to crawl
through a box that was set at different height levels. The box was a hands-on
way to educate students about a basic rule of cave exploration---the importance
to know how small of a space one can safety pass through. Students and teachers
were given the chance to crawl through a space, a space decreased in size after
students successfully achieved a height.
However, the highlight was the simulated cave experience.
“The cave simulator is like a video game in that, as they crawl through
the simulator, they will get a score,” Shackelford explained “If they hit a stalactite
or a stalagmite or any of the cave formations, points are detected. It’s an
interactive cave simulator.”
The cave simulator was introduced to the students by its creator, Dave
Jackson, an electrical engineer graduate from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology). Jackson explained why the simulator is more than just an
educational tool for students.
“I was doing cave rescue training in 2008 and we were using a giant
jungle of picnic tables that was supposed to represent a cave,” Jackson
explained. “We had a person on a stretcher and we were threading them through
the tables and around flagging. It was not a good situation. No one was
learning anything. We also went underground to practice and we actually damaged
the cave. I decided that I was going to take what I learned in engineering
school and put it together with cave rescue training. Rescuers in
training need practice in an environment that realistically simulates the
challenges of rescuing someone from a cave before they go
underground. Now we have had about 20,000 people go through. It’s both for
education for kids and for cave rescuers to train.”
The simulator also allowed students to watch on video monitors their
classmates and teachers pass through the cave. Jackson also spoke with the
students about rock formations inside the cave and about the importance of cave
preservation. In addition, Jackson reminder the students of the importance of
math and science as a foundation for learning and future endeavors.