At the end of the semester, students in Professor Mark Marsolais’s CJ 199 (Introduction to Incident and Emergency Management) had the opportunity to apply what they learned in the course to a simulated disaster incident. Maine Forest Ranger Investigator Lisa Byers, the course instructor, and Forest Ranger Sergeant Scott Maddox guided a hands-on academic exercise.
Sergeant Maddox used the Forest Department’s Simtable simulation platform (Simtable – Collaboration in a New Light) to create a railroad chemical car disaster in the heart of Waterville (between Colby College, Interstate 95, Maine General, and several residential neighborhoods). The students assumed management roles typically needed to respond to and control such emergencies. Using knowledge and emergency management certification (Emergency Management Institute – National Incident Management System (NIMS)) that they achieved during the course, they developed objectives and plans of actions to deal with a fast-moving and deadly incident. They assumed various emergency management roles for command, operations, logistics, public information, safety, and financial support.
The students learned the complexities of managing emergency situations such as mass shootings, natural/weather disasters, industrial and environmental disasters, wildfires, floods, and combinations of such. They also learned, through their hands-on academic experience, that the knowledge that they gained could benefit all students, to include business, education, and psychology majors.
Students who participated included Liz Bowman, Riley Enright, Laurel Fribley, Layla Pickering, and Emily Snyder.