News

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

Manitou YES Club visits CaveSim

April 24, 2012
You’ve probably already figured out that we work hard to teach kids and adults about cave conservation using CaveSim.  What does that look like?  Here’s a photo of a Manitou Springs Elementary student during their field trip to the CaveSim garage today.  You can tell that the only thing on this student’s mind is our lesson about why you shouldn’t touch cave formations.  The amazing thing about CaveSim is that I’ve had kids come back a year after their first visit and recite back to me everything we taught them about cave conservation.  So, yes, they’re really learning.
Concentrating while caving!
Photo: Erik Mattson

YES Club visits CaveSim

April 10, 2012

Ms. Downey’s YES Club from Taylor Elementary had a great time visiting CaveSim today.  They learned about safe caving, cave rescue, and about some formations that they hadn’t heard of before.

Right: Students watch monitors and video feeds to see how well a classmate navigates CaveSim.
Left: A student having a great time in the popcorn crawl.
Photos by Katy Downey

CaveSim staff assist in a real cave rescue

April 7, 2012

It’s 3AM Eastern, and Dave, Tracy and Scott (Tracy’s brother) just got back to Atlanta from participating as rescuers in a successful cave rescue in a cave in Alabama.  This was Dave and Tracy’s first real rescue, and we were extremely well prepared by our CCRN (Colorado Cave Rescue Network) training.  Thanks, CCRN!  The Huntsville, Atlanta and other rescue teams did a great job.  Dave, Tracy and Scott were with the patient from almost first contact all the way to the ambulance, and we are glad that the patient was doing well when they arrived at the ambulance.

We look forward to bringing CaveSim to many future cave rescue training events.  If you’ve donated to us, thank you!  If you have yet to donate, here’s one more reason to give.  Donate now!

Patient in a ferno

Dave and Tracy (in the yellow helmets) work with Eddie (Alabama SAR) to package the patient during the Tumbling Rock rescue. Photo: Jonathan McDole.

Buena Vista Elementary YES Club visits CaveSim

March 21, 2012

Students from Mr. Rochette’s YES Club at Buena Vista Elementary School (in Colorado Springs) crawled through CaveSim today and learned more about caves and bats.  Quote of the day: “I just want to say, you’re awesome for building this cave!”

Canon City HS students use CaveSim for mock rescue

March 17, 2012

Students from the Canon City High School Caving Club stopped by the CaveSim garage to experience their first mock cave rescue.  As they learned, cave rescue is extremely difficult (especially with uncooperative patients!) The students also went caving with Dave and other Williams Canyon trip leaders on a trip to Swirling Mist.  The students did an awesome job helping with digging and erosion control projects.

CCHS caving club in Swirling Mist cave

Club members pose inside Swirling Mist after a long day of caving. Photo by Ken Cline.

CaveSim staff lead Canon City HS students on caving trip

March 3, 2012

Students from the Canon City High School Caving Club went caving with Dave, Tracy and other Williams Canyon trip leaders on a trip to Huccy’s.  The students did an awesome job taking care of the cave and one another.

Tracy and CCHS club members in Huccy's

Tracy (left) and students from CCHS pose after enjoying the mudslide in the Buffalo Room. Photo: Ken Cline

Half way to West Virginia

December 5, 2011

The National Speleological Foundation (NSF) has agreed to fund CaveSim’s return transportation to Colorado from the 2012 NSS Convention, MayaCon.  Now all we need is help getting to convention is the first place.  The NSF was generous enough to fund half of this trip, bringing CaveSim to thousands of convention goers, community members, and teachers across the county.  Can you or your grotto help CaveSim with the rest?  Contact us.

CaveSim staff teach kids speleology in Cave of the Winds

October 16, 2011

Cavers from CaveSim, Southern Colorado Mountain Grotto, and Catamount Institute gathered Sunday to provide special cave exploration tours at Cave of the Winds.  Highlights included vertical (SRT) demonstrations, hands-on cave survey work, bat surveys, and speleogenesis classes.  Everyone did a great job today and yesterday; special thanks to SoCoMoGro members Floyd, Patricia, Dan, LP, Mike, Donna, and Jonny.  Dave had a great time teaching speleology and speleogenesis (in the pictures below, Dave gets to play with acid).

Dave demonstrates acid on limestone

Dave teaches about corrosion residue and demonstrates acid on limestone. Photos by Emerson Killion.

245 people explore CaveSim at 2011 CoolScience Festival at UCCS

October 15, 2011
We had a record number of visitors crawl through CaveSim today, including some repeat customers from the Colorado Springs festival last year who came to check out all that we’ve added.  People can’t get enough of CaveSim!
Click the images to enlarge them.
Kids learn about caves while waiting in line at UCCS. 
Kids learn about caves while waiting in line, and excitedly peer into CaveSim. Photos by Bruce Hutchison.

Over 1000 served

October 15, 2011

CaveSim has now had over 1000 visitors in one year and eight months!  Thank you to all of our visitors.

New 3D photos by Peter and Ann Bosted

August 11, 2011

Thanks to Peter and Ann Bosted, we now have great 3D photos of CaveSim.  Below is a picture of Ann inspecting a big stal in CaveSim.

Ann Bosted and large stal
3D photo by Peter and Ann Bosted

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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Based in Manitou Springs, CO
info@cavesim.com
914.330.7824
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