By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
One of the most important things for first responders to understand when they are entering a building is where they are going and how to get there quickly. It doesn’t matter if it’s police, fire, or emergency medical services; they need to know the layout. For firefighters it might be to understand where hydrants and access points are in relation to the fire. Or where hazardous or flammable materials might be located. For EMTs and police it might be the nearest entrances and exits from a scene. Regardless of what it is they are looking for specifically, knowledge and information are key to acting in the most effective and efficient way.
Diagrams and blueprints have been the traditional way of providing this information to first responders, but they are limited. They might show police that there is an entrance from one room to another, for instance. But that might not fully demonstrate where officers would encounter blind corners or where open lines of sight would be available. Not as well as something like a 3D model could. So, that’s what Rylyn Rayburn, Abby Daniel, and Claire Holbrook decided they needed to build.
The students discovered a program that allows them to collect photographs of a school environment and have those photographs stitched together into a 3D model that first responders can use to virtually navigate an environment, from any angle imaginable. By building this model, and providing it to first responders, the students explained, they should never find themselves “going in blind” when responding to an emergency.
It’s something they’d like to do for every school in the county, not just West Carter High School; and, if they can manage it, to turn it into a business they could export to other districts.
They’ve already got the support of school district police chief R.D. Porter. Porter not only supports the program as a concept, he’s actively working to help the students expand it into something more. He’s helped the students to apply for a grant from TC Energy that could provide seed money for their business, as well as funding the 3D mapping of the high school.
The trio have developed a business plan for the idea, which has already won the ECIP ACTC District Challenge. They will now move on to present that plan as part of the next level of that entrepreneurial competition at the University of Pikeville next month, their faculty sponsor Corey Shepherd explained.
They shared the presentation they plan to compete with during the November meeting of the Carter County Board of Education last week.
In other action, the board heard from East Carter Middle School students on their question policy, and how it allows them to answer and ask questions appropriately. The program encourages them to not just accept that something works, but to ask the right questions to understand why it works.
They also heard from Carter City Elementary, Heritage Elementary, Olive Hill Elementary, Prichard Elementary, Star Elementary, and East Carter Middle School principals on their test scores.
Superintendent Paul Green said he was “happy” with the districts test numbers, but explained they got minimal bonus points compared to other districts – who didn’t score as high as Carter County – because they didn’t improve as much as other districts did, even though they scored higher in general than those other school districts. That’s because they’ve had good scores in previous years, Green said, so even with steady improvement there just isn’t room for the kind of dramatic improvement that those districts with previously low scores could achieve.
Green also took time to welcome Corey Gee into the role of principal at East Carter High School.
The board also heard updates from the school police chief and from the architect on the new school design and sitework. The architect report noted that more drilling needs to be done to determine the optimal area to construct a road into the property. They also reported on school design, noting that nothing has been finalized yet. The representative told the board that they were “looking at puzzle pieces” of what the new school would be, to determine what type of rooms they can provide and which of those rooms can do double duty – for instance a multi-purpose space for both band and vocal practice, or a space that can be used for vocal music instruction as well as an auditorium.
Green said he is working with the architects to make sure they can increase lab space, and increase career paths at the vocational school while also expanding existing programs.
“I think we’re on the right track,” Green said.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
