When they came across a hazard - an unmarked intersection, a busy thoroughfare, a poorly lit corner - they called up coordinates on their GPS units and logged them and details about the location on a clipboard.
Jordan Cummings, 10, noted his street - 38th - lacks sidewalks, so kids walking or riding bicycles drift into the street as they are forced to navigate around parked cars. Cummings said dune buggies and all-terrain vehicles also often race up and down the road.
At the recently redesigned 39th Street, students pointed out positive aspects of the reconstruction: bike lanes, crosswalks, medians and pullouts at bus stops.
Jeff Crews, assistant director of the University of Montana's Earth Observing System education project, a NASA-funded program in UM's School of Education, tagged along for the lesson. Crews noted two federally funded grants helped support the effort, which aims to create safer communities for kids.
Through EOS, Montana's public schools have free access to more involved interactive software, which allows students to tailor their studies around a specific site or issue and gather data related to their investigation. In this case, safe routes took center stage.
Teens like Steve Kilzer, 17, a Sentinel drafting student, helped the fifth-graders integrate GIS software and GPS technology.
"I'm just here to help the kids Š make sure they are doing it right," he said.
"They pick up technology so fast and they are so excited about it," said Russell fifth-grade teacher Joan Kuchel.
"In addition to looking at their neighborhoods from a different perspective - from the perspective of safety - they'll also share their findings with the younger kids," she said.
Indeed, Crews explained that after the fifth-graders went to the six surrounding neighborhoods - 34th and Bancroft, Lacota and Tahoe, Grant and Charlotte, Grant and Ernst, Paxson and 34th, and Agnes and Garfield - the Sentinel students will take all the data and put it into a digital map using GIS technology. They'll print the maps, have the fifth-graders review the collected data and sketch in routes. In the end, the students will decide on the safest routes.
"The Sentinel students will then take back the data and digitize the routes to build a final neighborhood map that they'll bring back to the fifth-graders," Crews said.
Before her class started the project, Caitlin Mondloch, 10, who lives near Schilling Street, never really thought of her neighborhood as having hazards.
"It was kind of cool to see what's all in my neighborhood, but it is also sad to see all the things that make it dangerous," she said.
Jessica Lebsack, 10, didn't notice too many hazards in her 34th Street neighborhood, but heavy traffic on a nearby street is a concern, she said.
Once the final neighborhood maps are completed, the fifth-graders plan to share their safe routes with Russell third-graders they know through a buddy program.
"We're going to show them the safer routes so they'll know what to keep their eyes open for," said Shelby Henthorn, 10.
Reporter Jane Rider can be reached at 523-5298 or at jrider@missoulian.com.
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