School of Dreams (124)

The School of Dreams team (#124) is from Las Lunas. This year they've submitted a project titled The Containment of a forest fires.

Proposal
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_proposal1112.php?team_id=124

The Containment of Forest Fires Contaminents

Team: 124

School: School of Dreams Academy

Area of Science: enviromental science

Our project is based on the run off from fires which includes; ash, dirt, and debris. We feel that this is important because when all of these objects are foreign to rivers run off into the river systems, these factors could kill the animals and end up making the river overflow. The results from this model would help people who are studying the water quality and cleanup crews for after forest fires. The purpose is to figure out how to clean up the ash, debris, and other substances from harming the environment. We plan on taking the final data from the team we plan on working with to figure out how to clean up the system after the disaster.

Team Members:

Denton Shaver Bethany Tanner Nick Taggart

Sponsoring Teacher: Creighton Edington

Interim Report
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_interim1112.php?team_id=124

The Containment of a forest fires contaminents

Team: 124

School: School of Dreams Academy

Area of Science: Environmental Science

Problem Definition:
There are many tragic things that can happen during a forest fire. It extinguishes animal lives as well as destroying the forest. It causes plenty of damage and can hurt people that live around a specific area. After a forest is destroyed by fires, that means there are no tree's or plants. No tree's or plants means, no roots to take in water. Through the years the dead forest still lays there. There is no such thing as recovery in such cases. When suddenly a storm comes in there is nothing to hold the rain that falls from the sky. The rain builds up and rolls through the once before forests and causes a flood. The flood would run down hill and bring all of the debris, ashes, trash, wood, and carcasses with it. The problem is all of the debris going down hill to one place. It can cause problems with the forest or even the houses around it.

Problem Solution:
As there is debris and trash running through through the forest it can cause a lot of damage. Our teams decision is to invent a new and improved way of preventing the debris, ash, wood, and carcasses, from running through the forest. There have been ways of trying to clean the debris but there have not been ways to prevent the spread during a rain storm. Through research we have found small ways to try and stop the waters mulching. Our idea is that there may not be enough time to mulch or set up objects like that in a certain amount of time.

Progress to Date:
This team has been doing countless hours of research and taking notes. We have been looking at what is being used to prevent the spread of debris and how we can improve it or make something better. The three of us have made plans for our presentation for our new invention on StarlogoTNG. We have been trying to modify the presentation and get a head start on the reports we need to do.

Team Members:

Denton Shaver Bethany Tanner Nick Taggart

Sponsoring Teacher: Creighton Edington

Interim Comments
Hello Team 124,

My name is Ramesh Shakamuri. I have worked in IT and Software development for the past 15 years on the technical and functional side, developing enterprise systems or managing the software development process.

You have selected an excellent area and scope of research that allows you to successfully meet the April deadline. Hopefully, my feedback will allow you to refine your report.

The residual effects of a forest fire depend to a large extent on these factors: Terrain: undergrowth, geographical contours, Wind: direction and speed,

Does your computational model factor in all these elements in using your product to contain debris dispersal after a forest fire? Good Luck on your final report!

Good luck and congratulations on all of the hard work to get to this point.

=Team Comments=