Engineering students build model to aid in school safety

Two students, seniors Jay Lacek and Trenten Mueller, from Shadow Ridge High School’s Engineering program culminated a year-long effort on April 16 by presenting their Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) project to professors at the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University.  Their project was a three dimensional model of the school that was used by the Dysart Unified School District safety department along with local City of Surprise officials, police, and fire department personnel to simulate emergency scenarios and responses.     

It started about a year ago when Kevin Sartor, Dysart Unified School District Safety Coordinator and Mayor of Surprise, approached Eric Bennett, the Shadow Ridge Engineering teacher, about creating 3D-printed models of the school.  Mr. Bennett recognized right away that it would be perfect for his students to participate in EPICS.  EPICS is a national social entrepreneurship program. Teams design, build and deploy systems to solve engineering-based problems for charities, schools and other not-for-profit organizations.

“It was important that as we continue as a safety team to help schools become better at planning, preparing, and executing emergency plans that we had a model that they could use and visualize the different scenarios that we're working with,” said Sartor. 

Mueller and Lacek spent months preparing the models in a program called Solidworks, which is a computer-aided design (CAD) program.  They used a combination of the Maricopa County assessor’s website, schematics, and their own measurements to develop the structures.

“We went through a lot of prototyping with the wall thickness and how we were actually going to make the roofs for the buildings,” said Lacek.  “It was a long process.” 

“We just wanted a box and what they were able to produce was mind blowing,” said Sean Mattson, Safety Coordinator for the Dysart Unified School District.  “In fact, even Mr. Bennett commented that they went way above and beyond what his expectations were for the final product.” 

After completing the models, the City of Surprise organized a table-top exercise with local school administrators, police officers, fire personnel, and city officials.  Both Lacek and Mueller were invited to participate in the exercise to see their work be used in the real world.

“At first we didn't really feel the effect of our design, but seeing it at the table-top exercise, seeing how they're actually gonna use it, really opened our eyes,” said Trenten Mueller. 

Before the table-top exercise, Sartor presented both students with challenge coins for their work and service to the community.  

“I think anytime you can teach somebody something and then they can put a practical use to it in a real-world environment, I think it just adds that much more educational value,” said Sartor.  “It gives them a real-world project at the end of their high school career to really, you know, put all their skills to use and produce an amazing model.” 

Because most of the Dysart Unified School District high schools have a similar layout, the Shadow Ridge model will be used to develop plans for emergency response at the other schools as well.  However, both Sartor and Mattson are hoping to have students build models of elementary schools in the future. 

“It's been fun to watch them develop and see the amount of time and effort they put into it,” said Eric Bennett, Engineering teacher at Shadow Ridge High School.  “This meets the true criteria of what a real-world engineering project should be, and these students are well ahead of where they need to be when they go to college as they get ready to become engineers.”

Trenten Mueller will be attending Arizona State University in the fall majoring in mechanical engineering, while Jay Lacek will be attending Northern Arizona University to also major in engineering.