Emergency At Hillview? Nope, It's SurvivalFest 2012.

If you drove by Hillview Middle School on Thursday, April 12, you might have been very alarmed. The normally quiet campus was crowded with police cars, fire vehicles, a mobile command unit, and search and rescue personnel and trucks from two counties. 

Sirens screamed intermittently, the ground boomed and shook, and a sky-high climbing tower rose oddly into the sky. A crisis of epic proportions?  No, it was SurvivalFest 2012, a special one-day program orchestrated by s seventh grade teachers that had the students competing to make shelters, apply simple navigation techniques, prepare for hot and cold natural environments, practice emergency first aid, and learn knot tying and other survival skills. 

During the day, the seventh graders rotated in teams through math, science and social studies games that were designed to teach survival skills. Complementing the games were special appearances from city and county emergency services, a mobile game truck (where the kids played Man vs. Wild, of course), a climbing tower, paracord rescue bracelet-making station, and appearances by Perry Tancredi from Boulder Outdoor Survival School, the , and Menlo Park Mayor and Hillview parent .

“This enrichment activity was designed to add a hands-on learning context to our in-class instructional activities,” said Michael Kaelin, a seventh grade English teacher.

“Survival has been a year-long theme in the classroom, with the kids reading The Call of the Wild, learning to follow technical instructions, practicing expository "survival video" speeches, studying the Mayan culture and so on,” Kaelin added.  

One math department competition, called “Trip to the ‘Stick,” was based on the premise that the unthinkable has happened and chaos has begun. To ensure their safety, the kids had to figure out how to get their teams to Monster Park at Candlestick Point. The process required calculating how much food and water they would need to make the 25 mile walk, earning those supplies through games, and building a shelter.

“More than anything, the kids had to collaborate and cooperate, said seventh grade math teacher Mr. Shack. 

Science rotations had the kids “hunting” in a forest for small game and surviving an unexpected cold weather environment, while the social studies rotations took their cue from Aztec, Mayan and Incan cultures, offering face painting designed to scare off enemies during war, and competing in Pok-a-Tok, game the ancient Maya played for their lives, and in which the losing team was sacrificed to the gods!

“In our version no one was sacrificed,” assures Kim Staff, Hillview seventh grade social studies teacher. 

City and County Emergency Services added a note of excitement and reality to SurvivalFest. The brought an earthquake simulation trailer; hosted a booth about home security; the San Mateo County Sheriff brought a mobile communications unit, search and rescue personnel, an off-road search vehicle and Murphy, and the search and rescue dog. Santa Clara County Search and Rescue was also there with search personnel and emergency rescue equipment that included a Stokes basket and backboard.

According to the search and rescue officers on hand, the main message for kids if they are lost in any environment – urban or wilderness, is to stay put.

“If you are lost and you move around, you may unknowingly move from an area we have not searched, into one that we have searched already,” said San Mateo County Search and Rescue Officer C. Bloom.  “Once we have searched an area, we may not get back there for days.”

“SurvivalFest is a cross-curricular celebration that builds upon the theme of survival,” said Mr. Kaelin, who is also a volunteer member of San Mateo County Search and Rescue. “Our goal was to have students leave with the understanding that in an actual emergency situation, we can work together as a community to survive and recover.”

 

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