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Students learn advantage of school during ITD tour

ITD’s Headquarters complex looked much like a school campus recently when more than 100 young people from Canyon County’s 2C Science Camp spent a day learning about the importance of school.

Department volunteers guided small groups through the East Annex where they watched chemistry, geotechnical and structure demonstrations. The students also built marshmallow towers and learned about bridges and highway traffic lights and signs.

New for this year’s group of young visitors was an outdoor display featuring the department’s Incident Response truck, a fully equipped dump/snow plow truck and a snowplow simulator.

The simulator proved popular with the students. Many took a “spin” at plowing snow while keeping their simulated vehicle on a virtual highway and not hitting another vehicle or other random obstruction.

ITD volunteer Joy Finley said the youths in her group were excited about seeing a real truck after their turns in the simulator.

“John Hall, from the Caldwell Maintenance Shed, brought the snow plow truck and did a fantastic job showing them how it works,” Finley said.

She said participants were well behaved and genuinely interested in ITD operations.

The 2C Science Camp was created by the Canyon County Keeping the Promise Coalition to give up-coming seventh graders an opportunity to participate in fun, “hands on” projects, allowing them to experience science, technology, engineering and mathematics in a new and exciting way.

“Our volunteers serve as role models for students,” said Michelle George, senior human resources specialist and ITD outreach coordinator. “They provide opportunities to see how knowledge gained in the classroom is applied to real-world challenges.”

ITD partnered with 2C to receive a $55,000 Federal Highway Administration grant that funded the two-week camp. It included transportation, lunch, field trips and many hands-on activities, all at no cost to participants.

Volunteers who helped make the 2C Science Camp excursion to ITD a success included:

Chris Alden	Nestor Fernandez	Victoria Jewell Guerra	Dianna Magstadt	Kathleen Slinger	Joe Tamasco
Duane Brothers	Sonna Lynn Fernandez	John Hall	Debby McCarthy	Mike Sprague	Sajonara Tipuric
Julie Caldwell	Joy Finley	Dianna Hoffecker	Douglas K. McKinney	Diane Steiger	Kyle Wright
Barbara Conklin	John Gates	Tisha Hyde	Shanon Murgoitio	Paul Steinman	Ron Wright
Erika Falls	Steve Grant	Jake Legler	Mary Simmons	Janie Stillwell	Muhammad Zubery
Patti Fanckboner

A special thanks to all other employees who supported the visit.