News

Middle school students teach 4th graders about caves, bats, history

April 11, 2013
We took CaveSim to the Manitou Elementary School today for the 4th graders. Today was the Day of Service for the middle school, so 15 middle school kids volunteered as guides and taught 75 4th graders all about caves. Everyone did an awesome job, and we had fun tying caves into what the 4th graders are studying (Colorado history) by talking about native peoples and their rock art and artifacts. It was so cool to see the middle school students each use their strengths (teaching, public speaking, computer skills, etc.)

37 teachers visit CaveSim and Cave of the Winds to learn cave ed.

April 6, 2013

How much cave education can you fit in four hours?  A lot, as 37 teachers learned today at CaveSim and Cave of the Winds.  The teachers took special trips through CaveSim, did hands-on cave science activities at several stations with Tracy, and took custom cave tours at Cave of the Winds led by Dave and Tracy.  We did the program for the Peak Area Leadership in Science group, which lets teachers earn continuing education credit.  A huge thanks to them for including us in their program.

Highlights of the CaveSim portion of the program included cave survey work for a few teachers, along with searches by other teachers for archaeological artifacts and ecological evidence within CaveSim (thanks to Tracy for getting the terracotta jug).  In the process, the teachers learned about lampshade spiders, Golondrinas swallows, micro-habitats, corrosion residue, and a host of other speleological topics.

At Tracy’s science stations, the teachers created miniature sinkholes.  They grew cave formations, and they worked at mineral identification.

After the CaveSim and science station work, we went to Cave of the Winds to explore a real cave on trips led by Dave and Tracy (thanks to Cave of the WInds for allowing us to be tour guides for the day!)  The teachers built on what they learned earlier by seeing real beaded helictites, corrosion residue, joint-controlled cave systems, shields, and more.  Some of the teachers even got to see lampshade spider webs.

If you’re a teacher or if you’re interested in our cave education programs, check out our new programs brochure.  We love using CaveSim to teach kids about a wide variety of subjects (almost every subject you can think of ties into CaveSim: science, technology, engineering, math, archaeology, history, geology, biology, ecology, chemistry, art, and even physical education).

Colorado Springs School (CSS) students visit CaveSim

February 27, 2013

10 high school students from The Colorado Springs School came to visit CaveSim today (here’s an article written by the students about the trip).  The students are in a seminar course about rock art (petroglyphs, pictographs, etc.)  Their teachers decided that CaveSim would be a great way to introduce the students to the concept of exploring fragile environments.  Tracy added cave paintings to CaveSim specifically for this group, and Dave added sensors to the cave paintings to warn visitors when they get too close to the rock art.  As the students crawled through CaveSim, they toted their sketch books and learned that it can be difficult to sketch in small cave passage!  The students also learned about a host of other topics, including geology, history, cave safety, and biology (e.g. rock varnish and white nose syndrome).  The students did an excellent job, and we enjoyed working with them.

Pictograph
Tracy’s cave painting. If you come up with a good story for this painting, tell us and we’ll post it!

Middle school student learns electronics in CaveSim lab

January 9, 2013
Ann
Anna came with her dad to visit the CaveSim mad scientist lab to learn about electronics for her school innovation project.  Before she had ever heard of CaveSim, she decided that her project would be to build a voice recording / playback device to help her remember to do things. When I heard about Anna’s project from her dad, I invited them to the CaveSim lab to learn about electronics.  She explored CaveSim, which has voice modules (the modules say things like, “Please do not shine your light on the bat!”)  The modules are the same ones that she could use for her project.  In the picture above, she is talking with me about the electronics of a voice module.  She is wearing a helmet because she enjoyed CaveSim so much that she didn’t want to take the helmet off!  She learned about various electronic components, and about how they’re like the plumbing in her house.  She also got to watch her voice make waves on the oscilloscope!

We enjoyed having Anna over because we believe in inspiring young people to follow their passion, whether that be electronics, science, art, or something else.  As we always tell kids, if you’re willing to learn and work hard, you too can build cool things like CaveSim.

Thanks again to everyone who supports us — you help us to teach kids like Anna to follow their dreams.

Anna's voice on the scope

Anna’s voice being played back on the scope. Photos by Dave and Tracy.

US Air Force Academy Youth Center hosts CaveSim

December 20, 2012
About 43 kids from the US Air Force Academy’s Youth Center explored CaveSim today and learned all about bats and caves.  They even practiced cave rescue using the sked that was donated earlier this year by Nigel Dyson.
Almost done!

A boy exploring CaveSim. Kids kept asking to go through again!  Photo: Tracy Jackson

Kids thank Dick Blenz

Kids and staff thank Corporal Dick Blenz, a WWII veteran and caver who sponsored the CaveSim trip to USAFA.  Photo: Dave Jackson

Kids play with the sked

Kids learn about how difficult cave rescue is.  They’re moving a sked (like a stretcher) that contains the weight of an adult man.  Photo: Tracy Jackson

Kids at USAFAKids gather with Kyla (USAFA staff) and Dave to thank Dick Blenz for sponsoring the CaveSim program.

First birthday party at CaveSim

November 10, 2012
Happy 14th Birthday, Skyler!  Skyler and his friends joined us for the first CaveSim birthday party today, and they had an awesome time.  We donated a party to the Catamount Institute fundraising auction as a way of supporting Catamount’s outdoor and environmental education programs.  Skyler’s parents, Julie Francis and Howard Drossman (Catamount’s founders), won the party by donating generously to Catamount.
Do you want a CaveSim birthday party?  Check out our party page!  Your party will help us continue our mission of doing cave education programs and conservation outreach.  And you’ll have a blast!

Biggest day on record for CaveSim

October 13, 2012

Thanks to the generosity of our backers, we had a record day at the 2012 CoolScience Festival with over 320 kids (and some adults) exploring CaveSim.

The enclosed CaveSim trailer on a busy day

People gather around the CaveSim trailer at the CoolScience Festival.  Photo: Jay Alexander.

A boy's first caving trip

A boy avoids the cave bacon while exploring the deepest part of CaveSim.  This photo was taken by looking in one of our three emergency exits.  The black box to the right of the boy is a cave rescue cache like the ones located in many Colorado caves.  Photo: DeeAnn Rothstein, CoolScience.

Dave at the back of the trailer

Dave, at the back of the trailer.  Participants enter and exit at the front of the trailer.  Photo: DeeAnn Rothstein, CoolScience.

Maiden voyage of CaveSim trailer was a great success

September 28, 2012
75 kids had a blast crawling through CaveSim and learning about caves and bats at Gold Camp Elementary School in Colorado Springs today.  The 5th grade students are studying ecosystems, which fits perfectly with the CaveSim lessons; while visiting CaveSim and our activity stations, they learned that every ecosystem on the planet can contain caves.  They also learned about the importance of bats in the food chain.  The maiden voyage of CaveSim was made possible by many people.  Thanks to the 100 people who helped us purchase the trailer, and to Marty Grove for lending us is truck (again!), and to Tracy Jackson and Steve Roach for taking the day off to change the lives of 75 children.  Also, a big thanks to Jesse Rochette for helping to construct more cave passage inside the trailer, and to Rudy for his expert welding work.
Trailer and truck

The CaveSim trailer and Marty’s truck after a hard day’s work educating 5th grade children. Photo: Tracy Jackson

Installation of CaveSim into trailer progressing quickly 8/18/2012

August 18, 2012
How do you fit a cave into a trailer?  With a lot of careful design and hard work.  Dave has been working daily to put CaveSim into the new trailer to get ready for events in September, including the Flight For Life conference and a trip to Gold Camp Elementary School for 75 kids.  The six boxes that make up CaveSim used to be configured in an L shape, but the boxes get connected differently to fit in the trailer.  This means that Dave is building additional cave passage to connect the boxes together.  In the picture below, Dave reinforces some heavy-duty cribbing that elevates one of the boxes above another box.  When the additional passage is complete, CaveSim will be about 10′ longer, and will include more climbing, with an alternate route for those who aren’t ready to chimney up 4′.  The new passage allows CaveSim to be left in the trailer so that setup time is eliminated.  The original passage can still be removed from the trailer if needed for indoor events.
We have also been working hard to send out rewards to our Kickstarter backers.  If you haven’t gotten your reward yet, don’t worry, we’re working on it.  Some of you haven’t received your t-shirts yet due to printing errors at the shirt company.  These errors have been corrected and your shirts will ship soon.
One of our awesome Kickstarter backers asked, “How do I order more [CaveSim gear]?  I’m thinking of Christmas gifts that I can purchase in support of CaveSim.”  Great!  Visit our online gear store to help us pay for all of the lumber that it takes to put CaveSim in the trailer.
Dave drilling    Working in tight spaces

Above left: Dave installs a giant mending plate to reinforce some cribbing in the new CaveSim trailer.  Dave makes many of the mending plates from scrap electronics enclosures.  This helps reduce the cost and environmental impact of the project.  Above right: Dave about to install a wall in the new passage in the trailer.  The old passage will continue to be used — we’re just adding to it.  Photos: Tracy Jackson.

Empty trailer
The trailer before any of the CaveSim pieces were installed.  We’ll soon be able to post a picture of the finished product.  Photo: Greg Pring.
Dave drilling
Dave installs some screws in the new passage inside the trailer.  Photo: Dave Jackson
Rudy welding Rudy and the door
Rudy does some excellent welding work to build a door for the cave passage.  Photos: Dave Jackson

Dave leads cave education workshop at US Air Force Academy

August 11, 2012
The Force Support Squadron of the US Air Force invited Dave to lead a workshop about cave education at their education conference.  Dave taught five cave-related activities and games during the 90 minute session.  The group was really fun to work with, and everyone seemed to enjoy the session.

SpeleoSoap donates to make CaveSim smell like a real cave

July 8, 2012
Debbie Moore and Rick Gordon of SpeleoSoap have generously donated a large number of their new car fresheners to make CaveSim smell like a real cave.  The car fresheners inside CaveSim were a big hit at MayaCon, where people were amazed when they smelled the fresheners.  Dave opened the back of CaveSim for photographers and special guests several times, and each time a wave of awesome cave smell would waft out.  One man said, “No way!” when Dave told him that we had cave scent inside.  When he smelled the freshener hanging on the entrance of CaveSim, he was totally convinced.
SpeleoSoap is now a proud sponsor of our free general public and caver-specific events.  To paraphrase Debbie Moore, SpeleoSoap wants to give back to the caving community by sponsoring CaveSim because cavers have been so supportive of SpeleoSoap over the years.  At CaveSim, we’re really grateful that SpeleoSoap is supporting our cave education and conservation outreach initiative, and we hope that you will purchase amazing soaps and other products from SpeleoSoap.  You can shop for SpeleoSoap here, or visit their blog, or check out SpeleoSoap on Facebook.  Thanks!
Oh, and one more story: I spent so much time with CaveSim at MayaCon that when I went caving in Piercy’s Mill on Friday I thought for an instant, “It smells like CaveSim in here” until I realized that it was the other way around. Totally true story.
The commA caver at MayaCon competes in the Communication Challenge by trying to string comm wire through CaveSim without touching the formations.  Note the black SpeleoSoap bat hanging between the entrance and exit.  Photo by Natalie Pheasant.

MayaCon a great success

July 4, 2012
The 2012 NSS Convention (“MayaCon”) was a great success.  Convention attendees took roughly 350 trips through CaveSim during our week in Lewisburg, WV.  CaveSim is now safely back in Colorado, and we’re working on putting CaveSim permanently in a trailer.  Here’s our scoreboard with the Speleolympic winners (none of the CaveSim world records were broken).  If you’re a winner, contact us to claim your prize.  Click each image to enlarge it.
A crowd around CaveSim at MayaCon        Kids try the squeezebox

Left: Cavers gather around CaveSim waiting to explore it. Right: JSS kids try the Loyalhanna squeezebox. Photos by Natalie Pheasant.

Speleolympic winners
The final Speleolympic scores. Click to enlarge.

In case you had any doubts, CaveSim is great for people of all ages. We had a great time talking with this Airborne veteran at MayaCon, and he did really well crawling through CaveSim.

An experienced caver exits CaveSim

Here he is reviewing his score with Tracy and Carolyn Parsons:

An experienced caver reviews his score

Photos by Gill Gilliland

 
Thanks to the National Speleological Foundation Vehslage grant for making our trip to the 2012 NSS Convention possible.  Your support allowed us to reach hundreds of cavers and non-cavers, including many young cavers.

Sked donated to CaveSim

June 26, 2012
A generous caver and fireman named Nigel Dyson donated a sked to CaveSim today!  We have been making great use of the sked already to teach young cavers about cave rescue.  We have a Rescue Randy (a 120 pound dummy on loan from Harold Chrimes and brought to us by Marion McConnell), and we have packaged Randy in the sked as part of the speleolympics.  We are excited to have the sked for future events to teach people about cave rescue.  Rick Speaect also donated to us today by buying the green rope in the picture below.  The rope enables the sked to be rigged for vertical hauling.
Rick instructs Dave
Rick Speaect instructs Dave in rigging the sked. Photo: Rick and Gaylene Speaect

Thanks for your help, Kickstarter backers! We met our goal!

June 15, 2012
We ran a Kickstarter campaign to put CaveSim on the road in an enclosed trailer, and we had 100 backers (see list below) from around the world donate over $6000 to our project.  If you are a backer, thank you — you made our project a success.  You’ll receive your thank-you gift soon, if you asked for one.  If you weren’t a backer, you can still participate in our epic adventure: visit us at MayaCon, June 25-29, 2012 or at CoolScience in Colorado Springs in October, 2012, or visit our online gear store – your purchase helps support cave education programs and conservation outreach for youth and adults.  Thanks!
Dick Blenz and Dave in front of CaveSim
Dave with Dick Blenz, who made two phenomenally generous donations to the CaveSim trailer project. Like Dave, Dick is an electrical engineer, and the two had a great time talking.  Dick has many incredible stories, is extremely nice, and would like to remind you, “Never step on a cable” and “Connectors are the weak point of any system.” Fortunately, CaveSim has redundant connectors to eliminate single-point failures.  Photo: Gill Gilliland.
Scott sporting CaveSim shirt
Scott Hall sporting his new CaveSim t-shirt, which he received for backing CaveSim on Kickstarter.  Scott says, “The T-shirt came in and it’s great!”  Photo: Scott and Amy Hall.
  
A huge thanks to all of our Kickstarter backers:
Brentan and Liz Alexander
Annie
David Barnes
Larry Bartel
Maureen and Bill Barton
Bogdan Belcea
Carl Bern
Eva Bigham
Andrew Blackstock
Dick Blenz (see note below)
Amie Bonner
Ken Brickman
Derek Bristol
Tilman Brock
Marc Buursink
Mike and Lisette Casey
Maggie Chumbley
Marshall and Shannon Comisar
Ann-Li and Mike Cooke
Andrea Corlett
Andrea Croskrey
Helen Dyer
Jerry Elliott
ELRM
Floyd Fernandez
Lee Fielder
Eleonora Florance
Jennifer Foote
Amy Fortier
Emily Fox
Mike Frazier
Alan Gilbert
Gill and Theresa Gilliland
Scott Gilliland
Squirrel Girl
Annie Graeter
Christi Graeter
Bill Gray
Michael Green
Andrew and Tricia Gregg
Michael and Fish Gundlach
Scott and Amy Hall
Paula Hanson
Mark Harris
PJ Hart
Leah Holloway
Dave Hughes
Bruce Hutchison
Juli and Robert Jackson
Mary Kay and Charles Jackson
Brad and Alice Kaanta
Adam Kaczmarek
Ben and Sarah Knighten
Kathryn Koerschner
Adam Lake
Nathan and Elizabeth Long
Joe Manganiello
Matt and Laura Martin
Karla Mayne
Sally McCraken
Cassandra Meyers
Robert Montgomery
Nancy Pistole
Jeff Polk
Bru Randall
Dirk Rasmussen
Marty Reames
Chris Rehorn
Sarah Richards
Steve Roach
Christina and Jesse Rochette
Cynthia Rogers
Paul Ryan
Paul Schwotzer
Susan Sexton
Jonny Slumpff
Sandy Smith
Alex Sproul
Rob Stitt
Bill Stringfellow
Tyler Stuart
Marie Sullivan
Cullen Sutton
David Torcivia
Louis Towles
Bill Tozer
Doug Warner
Jessica Watkins
Meredith Weberg
Glenn Wood
Keith Wheeland
Peter Youngbaer
Greg Yukl
Richard Zabawa
 
Groups (click to visit)
Extra thanks goes to Dick Blenz, who donated more than we could ever have imagined, and then quintupled his donation. Here’s a great link about Dick’s WWII experience.
Dick Blenz
Dick Blenz and Dave Jackson at NSSCon2012 (MayaCon). Photo: Gill Gilliland

These generous people and organizations have provided funding for our recent public outreach programs:

 
Mr. Dick Blenz
The Drossman-Francis family
SpeleoOlympics 2012: CaveSim to be the main event
John Pearson and Jeff Bray, the organizers of the 2012 NSS Convention (MayaCon), have made CaveSim the main event for the SpeleoOlympics (aka Speleolympics) at the Convention.  Be sure to stop by to try to beat the current records in the women’s, men’s and youth categories, set by Larissa Phillips, Derek Bristol and Philip Weaver, respectively.  We also plan to have a squeezebox and a navigation challenge as part of the SpeleoOlympics.  Regardless of whether you compete or not, CaveSim will be free to all attendees at the Convention, which will be in Lewisburg, West Virginia (June 25-29).

The Colorado Springs School visits CaveSim

June 14, 2012
33 students visited the CaveSim garage today to learn about caves and bats.  The students crawled through CaveSim, played Bat and Moth, enjoyed the Bat Migration Challenge, and checked out our new bat skeleton.  Quote of the day: Student: “This helmet has mud on it!” Dave: “That’s real cave mud, which is just decomposed limestone.  It’s the cleanest mud you’ll ever see!”
Atlas student Amber exits the sqeeze        Atlas student Hailie in the crawlway

Amber (left) and Hailie (right) from Atlas Prep enjoy CaveSim during their REACH summer program. Photos: Kelsey, REACH staff.

Hailie plays Bat and Moth

Hailie, playing Bat And Moth, tries to tag other students (moths) using her echolocation. Photo: Kelsey, REACH

Quentin plays the bat

Quentin plays the part of a bat in the Bat Migration Challenge. The orange tape represents a bat armband (bats get banded for scientific research, just like birds).  Photo: Kelsey, REACH.

Larissa Phillips sets new women’s world record for CaveSim

May 24, 2012

A new women’s world record for CaveSim was set today by Larissa Phillips of Colorado Springs.  Larissa’s score was 0 damage in 1 minute, 20 seconds.  She set her record on her first trip through CaveSim ever, and she seemed really pleased and surprised to have done so well.  Larissa has limited caving experience, which makes her record even more impressive.  She is a climber who works at CityROCK Climbing Center, which is great climbing gym located in downtown Colorado Springs.   The previous record was 0 damage in 1 minute, 27 seconds held by Andrea Corlett of Alberta, Canada.

Larissa Phillips of Colorado Springs, who set a new women’s record for CaveSim.  Photo: Larissa Phillips

Students enjoy keynote speech at symposium

May 5, 2012

Over 150 kids and adults attended the Catamount Institute Symposium today at Colorado College and learned about both caving and invention from Dave Jackson of CaveSim (“Dave from a Cave!”)  The Symposium is like a science fair where 4th and 5th grade students present their projects about caves, bats, water and underground ecology.  Instead of just answering a scientific question, the students take community action to solve a cave-related problem.  Dave’s talk emphasized the importance of using creativity to solve real-world problems, like Dave did with CaveSim.  Of course, the talk was also fun — who doesn’t want to hear stories about digging giant holes?

Watch a high-energy talk by “nationally known caver and inventor… David Jackson”: http://youtu.be/7_dQbg67KWk

One 5th grade student exclaimed, “This has been one of the best days of my life!”  The Catamount staff also had high praise: Darlene Jensen, Executive Director, commented that, “[Dave] Coming in full gear with such a wealth of information was incredible to all the students, young and old.”
Dave talks with a student
Dave, in full caving gear, listens as a student describes their crawl-through cave, made of moving boxes & other recyclables. Photo: Chris Aaby, Catamount Institute

A sad story with a good moral 5/5/2012

May 5, 2012

Quick story: Tracy and I went caving today with some first-time cavers and we saw these incredibly beautiful cave formations (see picture below).  Then we saw some super-delicate formations that someone had vandalized by pressing mud spheres into the formations in at least 30 places (see attached picture again).  Because of the ignorance of some unknown person on a previous trip, at least hundreds of years of natural growth had been wiped out in minutes, with the formations never to be the same again.  I found this extremely sad, and I told our group that this is why I haul around a 1600 pound cave simulator to teach kids about caves.  Because people can only protect what they understand.

I thought that I would share this story as a reminder that we could use your help to put cave education and outreach programs on the road.  Even if you only want to give $1, you’ll help us a lot by increasing the number of people who’ve pledged.  My standard joke is that everyone has at least $1 in change between the seats of their car.  Of course, if you can’t find a dollar between your seats, you can always tell a friend to support our project.

Wrecked gypsum and pristine helictites
Click images to enlarge. Left: mud smeared on gypsum crystals. Right: a pristine helictite. Photos: Chris Rehorn

CaveSim designs, builds, and uses interactive caves to teach kids about conservation and science. We believe that kids who know better become adults who do better.

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