"...the project was made of an empty half-liter Gatorade bottle with some wires and other electrical components attached...
Posted on 01/20/2010 6:51:46 AM PST by steve-b
Students were evacuated from Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School in the Chollas View neighborhood Friday afternoon after an 11-year-old student brought a personal science project that he had been making at home to school, authorities said.
Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said the student had been making the device in his home garage. A vice principal saw the student showing it to other students at school about 11:40 a.m. Friday and was concerned that it might be harmful, and San Diego police were notified.
The school, which has about 440 students in grades 6 to 8 and emphasizes technology skills, was initially put on lockdown while authorities responded.
Luque said the project was made of an empty half-liter Gatorade bottle with some wires and other electrical components attached. There was no substance inside....
(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...
I went to school in the fifties. Boy, I really am an old fa..... Anyway, during hunting season we would bring our shotguns to school so we could hunt rabbits on our way home. We had to put them in the coat room. Some of us would also tend our trap lines on the way to school, but that is another story.
I wish I had known of this theory before.
I was recruited to teach Eng. design at a high school.
I stupidly thought that I was hired so that the kids would learn the real life things you would need to know in drafting and design. The administration was more concerned about the kids getting good grades so that they could keep their “A” school status. I didn’t fit in, because I expected the kids to turn in their work, take notes, and show that they had gotten some knowledge from the class. Oh, and I didn’t grade on a curve. OOPS - you mean that my 62 on the test is a “D”, In science I got a B with a 62... Of course this lead to way too many parent teacher conferences for the principle’s taste..
I used to say I taught Science, a REAL subject . I told the kids on the first day of school, “ Welcome to the real world where 2+2 = 4 not 3, that’s close, you get a A.”
"...the project was made of an empty half-liter Gatorade bottle with some wires and other electrical components attached...
“The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling, the spokesman said. The student violated school policies, but there was no criminal intent, Luque said.”
What a bunch of namby, pamby over reacting IDIOTS!!!! I would have told the fire dept to shove their search of my house up their collective asses.
Thanks for the explanation. At first I thought he brought in a plane. :>}
Luque said the project was intended to be a type of motion-detector device.
The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling, the spokesman said. The student violated school policies, but there was no criminal intent, Luque said.
What school policies? It was an empty bottle with some wiring and electronic components for god's sake!
VERY fitting little internet gem for this topic!
http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=5103
Enjoy
My guess is the kid had stiff wires hanging inside the bottle in a ring. These were attached to one terminal of a battery. Then he had another wire with a metal weight on the end hanging down in the middle of the other wires. This wire was attached to one terminal of a buzzer. The other end of the buzzer was attached to the remaining terminal of the battery.
When the bottle is moved, the weight contacts one of the wires, completing the circuit. The buzzer buzzes.
This technology should NOT be in the hands of civilians!! /s
magnet school — To me, the term magnet implies thinking outside the box. It seems this ‘magnet’ school is no diff than any other in terms of actually thinking.
Was this an assignment? Any homemade science project could be construed as “dangerous” by a non-technical faculty member. What do they expect the kids to bring in when they assign a science project? Good thing the kid didn’t coil the wires up that were going into the bottle—that would really look bomb-ish.
“Thanks for the explanation. At first I thought he brought in a plane.”
Yep. There’s a P-38 Aircraft. There’s also a military can opener designated P-38. It’s a small folding doohickey a GI would use to get to his vittles.
The apparent lack of commonsense on the part of the Principal and Vice Principal are bad enough. What is really puzzling is the response of the Fire Department/Bomb Squad. Why on Earth would they deem it necessary to use a MAST robot and X-Rays to determine the Science Project was not a threat? By what stretch of the imagination did they think it was necessary to invade the home of the parents to conduct a search for a bombmaking factory of an 11 year old science student? Do they have any semblence of a reasonable cause, or did they just demonstrate a total loss of good judgement?
Kris, my late older (USAF-Mechanic)brother carried the “doohickey on a key chain alongside a jet turbine rotor vane.
At McDill an adjoining B-47 to his blew an engine when it fired-up with insufficient RPM’s. He had taken refuge in a storm drain culvert and the blade came in with him.
By the way the P-38 Lighting now has a sister plane named Lighting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-35_Lightning_II
Have a Great day and stay safe!
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