Wood Hurricane Dorian and the FEMA House

A STEM Novel
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 979-8-9893992-0-8
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 192 Seiten

Join middle school kids in a thrilling adventure, first surviving Category 5 Hurricane Dorian and then teaming up with friends and a college student to design, develop, build, and test an automatically deployable house to save lives. A house that FEMA can use throughout most areas of the world to aid people after their homes have been destroyed by climate or manmade events. Dive into the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) as Diane, Bronwyn, Dean, and Thomas use what they've learned in earlier adventures to help save the world while overcoming a killer that tracks them across Puerto Rico and Florida.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wood, Stephen

Leseproben

THE FEMA HOUSE

School was again back in session, and word had circulated that Diane, Thomas, and Dean had had an exciting summer adventure. The students in their class were just getting used to the fact that Diane was famous, for just last winter, she had gone to Florida with her friend Bronwyn to document the condition of the Florida coral reefs and prove to her science teacher, Mr. Johnson, that global warming and sea level rise were occurring, which was in contradiction to what he constantly told everyone who would listen. Diane and Bronwyn had snorkeled in the gigantic fish tank at Epcot Center in Disney World, Florida. They snorkeled and visited reefs throughout the Florida Keys to the Dry Tortugas, 75 miles west of Key West. They returned with videos and pictures of the extremely poor condition of the reefs. They also discovered several organizations trying to fix or at least slow the destruction of global warming on our coral reefs.

Diane was so persuasive that she won over the entire school and Mr. Johnson that global warming was a fact and that almost all coral reefs worldwide were dying extremely fast. Unknown to Diane, Mr. Johnson had invited several government officials, including a senator and a couple of representatives from the federal government. As a result, Diane was invited to present her findings to an environmental committee in Washington, DC. She was famous even though she wanted nothing to do with her new fame, and now they were learning that Diane had been off adventuring over the summer. Rumors were flying that she had helped design and test an AUV! Whatever that was. Once again, she had been in Florida at a small university with two other techy friends doing cool things: actually diving in caves, on shipwrecks, and then chasing drug runners in the Bahamas. To top it off, they got caught in a hurricane. All of this couldn’t be true. No one could believe that the serious, shy, quiet, and geeky Diane would be so… so… exciting.

What made it especially irritating to Diane was that she was now the center of attention for all the guys and a good number of girls just because she was famous. They wanted to be seen as friends with someone famous, even though they usually would not have wanted anything to do with her.

Dean and Thomas had also found new notoriety and used it to boost their standings. They were no longer geeks; they were cool guys now. Yes, next to Diane, they were the only ones in school who understood everything technical: programming in C and Python, developing 3-D solid models using Fusion-360, and making electrical systems with Raspberry Pi and Arduino microcomputers. They knew the difference between a resistor, a capacitor, and a diode. They could do micro-soldering of chips so small that they needed a microscope to see what they were soldering. Becoming one of the cool guys was new to them and caused Diane difficulties since she was now invited to all sorts of get-togethers and events that she had no interest in attending.

?

Diane and her friend Bronwyn had spent every free moment since they came home investigating how to house people stranded without a home. They looked up what FEMA was currently using, mobile homes, and quickly concluded they were not an option. You couldn’t transport them easily anywhere, and they don’t float.

Diane found the website: ‘http://www.worldhousingsolution.com,’ whose headline read: ‘WORLD HOUSING – SOLUTION – THE EVOLUTION OF EXPEDITIONARY SOLUTIONS.’ Followed by ‘DISASTER RECOVERY SOLUTIONS.’ It followed with a description of ‘Lightweight, modular, high-efficiency structures allow warfighters, disaster responders, and medical professionals to operate energy-deprived austere environments. Quickly deployed and ready to be assembled, the Rapidly Deployable Shelter of the WHS delivers…’ and finished with ‘Rapidly Deployable Shelter provides critical shelter instantly.’ The shelters were nice and quickly constructed, assuming a flat area to put them up on. They also did not come with all the amenities people would need to survive for an extended period. Therefore, Diane continued her search.

They both searched and searched for a solution online and came across ‘New Atlas,’ a technology website that would send you information about all types of cool inventions worldwide. The ‘New Atlas’ had numerous articles on tiny homes, mobile homes, camping vans, and various structures in which people can live. Then she saw it. In England, someone was converting shipping containers into single-family homes. That was her starting point. That night, Diane and Bronwyn asked Thomas and Dean if they would be interested in helping.

“Are you kidding! Of course! We wouldn’t miss another adventure with you!” Was their response. Then, they made a Zoom call with Brooklyn, a Florida Institute of Technology graduate student who had designed much of the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) from their last adventure. Unfortunately, she was in the last stages of writing her master’s thesis on the AUV and could not promise much assistance. She was of some help, however. It seems another graduate student couldn’t decide what to do with his life. He was about to quit and join the Peace Corps. He said it was his human nature side. The desire to help humanity. With that thought, Brooklyn had set up a Zoom with him for the next day with her team of middle school students.

?

September 2nd -Tuesday 5 pm

“Hi Brooklyn! I have Thomas and Dean with me. Bronwyn, another close friend of ours, couldn’t make today’s meeting,” started Diane.

“Hi Brooklyn! Hi Brooklyn!” said Thomas and Dean.

“Hi! It is great to see you all again. What an adventure it was last summer. An adventure of a lifetime. But it seems that you are starting on another,” said Brooklyn, who paused for a second, thinking about how they had all worked so well as a team, and then continued with a sigh. “Let me introduce you to Ryan. Ryan, this is Diane, Thomas, and Dean. They are the best, they are very good friends, and if I ever hear that you are giving them a hard time… you will regret it.”

Ryan, an average guy on the thin side, perhaps 5-foot 7-inches high, with lines on his face as if he worried too much, was always smiling, which made some people nervous. They thought that something was wrong with him, as if the smile was not sincere and that he was about to separate you from your money. He was a smooth talker; many women say he is very handsome.

“Hi Diane, Thomas, and Dean. Brooklyn told me about last summer. Wow! You really went through Hurricane Dorian? That must have been something. But enough on that. So, what is this project?”

“Right to the point. I like that,” said Diane and continued, “We are going to design and build a portable FEMA house that can be used for multiple purposes, such as a mobile operation base you may have read about in adventure and spy novels.”

“Very interesting,” Ryan said skeptically. “And how do you plan to make this happen? What resources do you have?”

“You, your university’s machine shop, 3-D printers, composite construction facilities, and simulation software that the graduate students use in the Naval Architecture program,” replied Diane.

“Wow, you know this place better than I do,” said Ryan, surprised.

Diane smiled. She thought Ryan was charming and handsome. “Ryan, I hear you are thinking about joining the Peace Corps. A project like this would be a ‘feather-in-your-cap,’ so to speak, to get that job. In fact, they may want these houses themselves,” hinted Diane.

“Yes, right,” responded Ryan thoughtfully. “But first, let’s look at your ideas.”

Diane explained the concept. The compact FEMA house would be the size of a shipping container. This way, hundreds could be on a containership and easily deployed. Like a magic bag, it would hold everything needed to support 10 to 20 people. All one would need was fuel, water, and food supplied by ship or helicopter. The question was how to do it and make it strong enough to be stacked ten high on a ship.

Ryan looked at them on the computer screen of the Zoom window and smiled. “All right, sounds like a great project. Send me what you have so far. Diane, Thomas, and Dean, let’s Zoom each week. I would say that we break the project up into components, such as base, support frame, roof, interior appliances, and so on, and work on each as a team. First, let’s follow Diane’s overall plan.”

They discussed a few other points and ended the call.

“He is a very nice guy,” Diane said with a grin.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Thomas irritably said. “There is just something about him. I really cannot put my finger on it.”

“It’s probably because he is so handsome. You don’t trust people who are smart and handsome,” she said in a disapproving voice.

“Perhaps,” said Thomas as his voice faded into thought.

?

September 3rd - Wednesday 4 p.m.

The next day, they got together after school. Diane started the conversation: “All right, according to Brooklyn, we must first define the system. To do this, we start with a statement of work or, in other words, what we will be doing. Brooklyn said that it should be a short statement. Something like: “This project involves the design, construction, and testing of an emergency shelter that will house up to 15 people with all the appliances and amenities for these people to live indefinitely when provided with sufficient food, water, and fuel. The FEMA house will withstand winds up to 75 miles per hour, temperatures to zero degrees Fahrenheit, be capable of floating on water, and be...