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SHELLEY, Idaho-
The students, working from designs provided by engineers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, are involved in more than a complex classroom assignment to create a 3-D video. Once completed, the students' graphic representations may well add to public and congressional understanding of the risks of moving nuclear waste-in this case from "wet storage" to a safer "dry storage" facility at the national laboratory about 60 miles northwest of Shelley. "I currently have a scale model of the (waste transportation and storage) system that I haul around in a small suitcase," says Joe Carlson, manager of the Three Mile Island-Unit 2 Dry Storage Project for the Idaho National Laboratory. The $30 million project involves the transport of 344 canisters of nuclear core materials "severely damaged" in the Three Mile Island accident. Scheduled to begin in 1999, the project "is highly visible and politically sensitive," he notes. Carlson says the video being developed by the students could be used for training workers, developing procedures, and making presentations. "Depending on the detail and depth that these kids can take their project, I could see a broad range of uses." The student work is a part of the Science Solutions class they take at Shelley High School. Teacher Mike Winston, who developed the curriculum now being used in high schools throughout southeastern Idaho, describes it as an integrated, problem-solving, service-based approach to education. "The class is based on schools actually helping to solve community problems-on kids working and getting involved in the issues in their community," he says. Winston has developed about 30 alliances with environmental, engineering, and energy agencies, the medical community, the school board, and state agencies such as the education and transportation departments. From the alliances come partners and mentors who work with the students. "We screen the projects to determine the ones with the most educational value," Winston says. "It takes a lot of cooperation." But it's not just the students who benefit. "The businesses have something vested in the projects," Winston says. "They provide the mentors, and we're working together on viable solutions. This helps them as well." Science Solutions, a year-long elective at Shelley, involves each student in one of about 12 projects during the school year. Many, but not all, of the projects require technological applications. Winston developed the approach after interning one summer at the Idaho Energy Laboratory. "I just went around and started asking the scientists and engineers what they needed from the school and students," he says. "The main skills they were looking for were communication, problem solving, and working together. I was surprised that they didn't stress the technological skills as much as these more generic ones."
As part of the curriculum Winston created, students are:
The students' animated, three-dimensional videos (software: 3-D Studio MAX R2 from Kinetix) provide a visual tool that will enhance public understanding of complex social and political issues, says junior Josh Toy. "With the three-dimensional models we're creating, we can slice the images, show the insides, the outsides, and how everything fits together," says Toy, who mentors his classmates in the uses of software. Winston says that the use of the sophisticated 3-D Studio software, most common in upper-level college architecture programs, is well within the grasp of high school students. In fact, he notes, the manufacturers of the software were having a difficult time making inroads at the high school level and came to Winston and his students. "They wanted us to take it on as a project so they could show the state Department of Education that it was a wise investment for high school students," Winston says. "The state was skeptical, very skeptical." But Winston's students now use the software routinely. "We just go in and do the tutorials, experiment," says Toy. "That's where the fun is. That's really what 3-D animation is about-learning through experience and experiments." Toy's latest project is a video about the wind tunnel that the Idaho Department of Energy Laboratory proposes to build. Researchers would use the tunnel to study the effects of hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters on different structures. The video takes viewers inside the tunnel, where a virtual camera pans, rotates, and revolves to provide a full range of views. It shows a string of 160-foot-tall louvers that can alter wind direction and velocity and gives viewers a graphic look at the impact such changes have on a structure. All work is done to scale, and students work with architects and engineers to ensure that their creation is an accurate portrayal of the design. Toy worked on the project throughout the summer as a member of a Science Solutions Action Team at the Idaho Energy Laboratory. Team members, who are selected through an application and screening process, work in the field and in the lab. They receive a fellowship and college credit through the Associated Western Universities -a consortium of Idaho colleges and universities. This year, Toy works on the wind tunnel project 15 hours a week for the laboratory. Through their Science Solutions class, students also have responded to the needs of their local school district. In one recent project, students worked under tight timelines to create a new district map that met state legislative requirements. "The zones for school board elections were out of compliance," Winston says. "The populations in the zones were supposed to be within 10 percent of each other. They were not. One was more than double the population of the others. The school board tried to fix this, but couldn't." Two students learned how to use the ArcView mapping software from a mentor at the Idaho Energy Laboratory, then developed a new map with population distributions that were within 3 percent to 4 percent of each other. "The redistricting needed and got legislative approval," Winston notes with pride. Shelley Science Solutions students have traveled the country to showcase their skills and projects at conferences and meetings. "We get a lot of requests," Toy says. "We can pick and choose what we want to do now."
On changing roles:
On sophisticated software:
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This document's URL is: Home | Up & Coming | Programs & Projects: Northwest Education | People | Products & Publications | Topics © 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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Building a Science Solutions Web Site (http://www.shs-solutions.net/) that will include information on Greater Yellowstone businesses, recreational activities, educational opportunities, the network of about 10 Science Solutions schools in Idaho, products and services available from the class, and other information.
TEACHER'S
FOOTNOTES
