Article Photos

Some eighth grade students at Youngsville Elementary/Middle School learned of the pressures of a time-sensitive, real life situations as they evaluated a volcano and hurricane and, in the end, saved the residents of Montserrat Tuesday morning.

Sort of.

It was all a simulation through the Operation Montserrat e-mission program offered through Wheeling Jesuit University. The project is a part of the Challenger Center started in memory of the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy.

The students were divided into four groups: the volcano team, the hurricane team, the evacuation team and the communication team. All four had a vital role in protecting the citizens of the island of Montserrat.

Students were directed by Commander Jordan of Mission Control, who students could view on video feed.

Commander Jordan explained what the students would be doing through the simulation with information from a satellite orbiting the Earth.

"Your role as a emergency response team is to interpret that information," Commander Jordan said.

Information from satellite helped the volcano team predict the eventual eruption and aided the hurricane team in tracking the path of the storm. The information compiled by the volcano and hurricane teams was transmitted by the communication team. The evacuation team used the volcano and hurricane information and transmissions from Mission Control to quickly move people out of harms way.

In the simulation, five minutes was equal to one hour. Time was of the essence. Kelsey Anderson of the volcano team struggled with a time lag as communication systems went down momentarily, prompting all teams to reboot.

The evacuation team, consisting of J.R. Yost, Andy Lalwani, Mackenzie Pence and Jessica Jamieson, worked closely with logistics. As the volcano team reported increased seismic activity, the evacuation team had to evacuate towns in close proximity to the volcano using only eight buses and a few cars. The evacuation team was also left to decide which people of priority would go first, what they should take and if pets could go, too.

"People should take food to last one week, seven pairs of clothes, and we're going to say no pets," Pence told Mission Control.

The mission was successful, with Commander Jordan announcing, "All endangered residents have been evacuated."

According to science teacher Jenny Watt, the e-mission program proved to be a good hands-on experience for the students.

"It required teamwork," she said, adding that program gave the students to apply their education to a real-life situation.

Even though the program was an hour and a half of fast problem solving, the students seemed to enjoy the experience.

"That was so much fun, I was to do it again," Pence said. However, she noted, "There was a lot of pressure."

Lalwani concurred and said, "It was fun though."

Although the mission went well, Watt said, "If given the chance to do it again, I would want to the students to not be as shy with Mission Control."