We had fantastic turnout at this great Patriot Elementary School STEM event for the second year in a row! Even the teachers and staff had fun:
Photo by Cara Greene, Patriot Elementary School STEM Coordinator.
What an incredible program! Students in grades 6-8 learned basic circuits, programmed microcontrollers, and built cave-proof electronics projects. They got to test their projects in a giant bucket of muddy cave water, and then bring the projects down to CityROCK to try them in the CaveSim system there. Not only that, but each student got to rappel into the cave, and everyone got a behind-the-scenes tour of the system and the associated electronics.
Learning soldering (left) and “Look at what I built! It works!” All photos in this post by CSS staff.
Left: Dave helps a student debug his circuit. Right: Building a circuit with a computer chip!
Left: Students work on their circuits. They also learned computer programming by writing code for their computer chips. Center: caver Patricia Malone helps a student. Right: Learning to use power tools to drill holes in a container for a waterproof flashlight.
Left: Reviewing a design by talking with Dave. Right: Circuits are for girls!
Because cavers love a nice warm tub, and every tub needs a replacement cover at some point! The Cover Guy has everything you need for your tub: hot tub covers, lifters, hot tub filters, chemicals, and accessories. Plus, they have a great blog.
We had great turnout for our third visit to Kartchner Caverns in Arizona. Check out our event flier to see all of the activities we did over a 2-day period. A huge thank-you to cavers Teresa and Hanna for helping.
A caver from one of the Tucson grottos explores CaveSim. Photo: Dave Jackson
Belinda Norby, a caver from Tucson, takes pictures of her friend, who was visible on the CaveSim night vision cameras. Photo: Dave Jackson.
Campers ages 8-16 learned rappelling and ascending in our CaveSim system at CityROCK climbing gym. The campers made the most of their winter break, and had a great time — our quote of the week: “Mom, this was the best camp ever. I want to come back and do it again,” James, age 8.
Ellen learns to rappel using a rack in the 40′ pit entrance of CaveSim at CityROCK. Photo: Dave Jackson
James learns to rappel on the climbing walls before rappelling in CaveSim. Photo: Gill Gilliland.
On June 25th, 2016 we opened this amazing new cave to the public. Come explore over 225′ of highly realistic water-carved passage, including a 40′ rappel / ascent. Try not to bump into any of the 50+ beautiful cave formations, and compete with friends using the computer system. More cave passage coming soon!
Many middle school students explored CaveSim (some as many as 7 times!) despite freezing temperatures and snow (this was definitely our coldest program on record). A big thanks to Lydia and James for helping us with this event, which ran from 4-6PM.
Camryn and Mara learn rappelling and ascending in the 40′ pit entrance of our CaveSim system at CityROCK. Photo: Dave Jackson.
This completely free event was made possible by our generous sponsors Barb Bentzin and Bob Montgomery. Hundreds of Scouts and their families explored CaveSim and did our many other activities.
Left: Dave teaches about gypsum flowers. Right: Waiting to explore.
Over 300 people visited our mobile CaveSim system at this great free public event. This was our sixth year in a row attending CoolScience! Please visit us next year on the UCCS West Lawn (WL).
Parents watch their kids on the night-vision cameras. Photo: Dave Jackson.
Dave talks with participants about our new cave simulator at CityROCK. Photo: Jim Taylor.
Dave teaches cave conservation as kids and adults wait to try CaveSim. The cave model was by 4th and 5th grade students in a Catamount Institute YES Club. Photo: Jim Taylor.
Kids and adults had a great time exploring CaveSim at this popular annual event in Lone Tree, CO (map). We had new formations for cavers to navigate around, and participants enjoyed our new kneepads and helmets.
We are excited to report that CaveSim is now covered by a second patent, US 9,399,178 B1. We’re always innovating and working hard to bring novel solutions to the problem of cave conservation education.
Local kids learn about cave conservation while waiting to explore CaveSim at a free event in Ely, NV before the 2016 NSS Convention. Photo by Chris Hanefeld, BLM.
A child finishes exploring CaveSim during the free public event in Ely before the 2016 NSS Convention. Photo by Chris Hanefeld, BLM.
CaveSim at the 75th Anniversary NSS Convention is funded by grants from Nevada Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Great Basin Heritage Area Partnership.
Additional sponsorship is provided by:
About a dozen girls got to explore the new cave that we built at CityROCK climbing center. They also experienced all of our traditional program activities: cave rescue stretcher, carbide-on-ice demo, cave rescue phones, and Bat And Moth (the echolocation game).
CaveSim was very popular at this free event from 9AM-3PM. A huge thank-you to the high school volunteers who helped us all day!
29 5th-7th grade students explored CaveSim today from 11:45AM-1:45PM, and enjoyed bat games, carbide demonstrations, and practiced their cave rescue skills. Many Atlas Prep students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, so our program was completely free, thanks to donations from Barbara Bentzin, Bob Montomery, and Dick Blenz.
For the third consecutive year, K-6th grade students had a great time exploring CaveSim at on their last day of the school year at Cresson Elementary School.
120 6th grade students explored CaveSim, learned geology from caver Jesse Rochette, practiced cave rescue with our Sked, learned electronics with our cave rescue phones (and an HP oscilloscope!), and played in the squeezebox. A huge thank-you to Pat Malone for helping kids put on helmets and knee pads, and another huge thank-you to Margaret Browne, 6th grade teacher, for helping us set up and for working with us throughout the day.
Students getting suited up to explore CaveSim. Photo by Dave Jackson.
Many things happen at once at CaveSim. At left, several boys watch the computer monitors to see how well their classmates are doing in the cave (the monitors show “damage” points for each cave formation, and also show live night-vision camera feeds of the inside of the cave). At right, students use the squeezebox to see how tight a space they can fit through. Photo by Dave Jackson.
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.