AUBURN, NY— April 29, 2004—Bright ideas, solid research and teamwork won four students from Clyde Boyd Middle School in Sand Springs, OK, a berth as finalists in the Christopher Columbus Awards, a nationwide program that challenges middle-school students to explore opportunities for positive change in their communities. Seventh-graders Austin McGinis, Laura McGee, Dylan Nall and Jennifer Procter, and their science teacher, John Gisler, had made it to the semifinals earlier this month and now are one of eight teams in the country to compete for the grand prize.

Living and going to school in Tornado Alley, these students are well aware of the high stakes of the summer/spring severe storm season. They became concerned that Mr. Gisler and one of their classmates, who are deaf, would not be able to hear the storm siren at their school. Further, the team found that more than a third of the students and teachers at the school could not distinguish between the sounds of the storm and fire sirens, which are designed to dictate two opposite reactionsÛthe storm siren means the students should hunker down in the building and the fire siren means they should quickly evacuate the building.

"In a severe storm or other emergency, every second counts," the students said. "We were concerned that our students and staff may not be able to react quickly enough or in the right way, in a tornado or fire because of the current sound alarm system."

For their project, the students developed a color-coded alarm system that would alert students and teachers to storms and fires with different flashing colors for each. The color codes would be activated by the sound alarms. As part of their research, the students interviewed and worked with city government officials, firefighters, electrical engineers and alarm companies. They hope to develop and install these new devices in each classroom in their school and then roll out the program to other school districts in Oklahoma.

A panel of community leaders, scientists and experts in science education judged this idea as one of the top eight entries in the U.S. Over 1,200 students participated nationwide.

The Christopher Columbus Awards challenge teams of middle-school students to explore and discover opportunities for positive change in their communities using science and technology. The program is now in its eighth year and has attracted more than 12,000 students from diverse backgrounds all across the U.S. The program is sponsored by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation with support from the National Science Foundation and it is endorsed by the National Middle School Association. Past winners have included a group of Native American girls who built a study hall out of straw on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, and a group of students from Pennsylvania who developed a video/motion sensor device for school buses that deters motorists from trying to pass illegally.

The program attracts many students who may not typically enter a science competition. More than half of the entrants are girls, and more than a fourth are from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, statistics that are higher than those of most science competitions. The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation believes the teamwork aspect and community focus draw a broader range of students to enter.

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