Meadowbrook students create Fire Department equipment

It’s important to stay organized during an emergency. An eighth grade Meadowbrook School student has built a storage unit to help the Weston Fire Department do just that.

James Wong worked with teacher Dan Riles to design and build a storage unit for the back of a Weston Fire Department truck. It has space for blueprints and other documents, as well as areas for a command board and other equipment that may be needed at the scene of a fire.

Fire inspector Captain Dean Munson had seen design equipment at Meadowbrook during one of his safety inspection visits to Weston schools. He knew the school had a CNC machine – a device that allows a computer to control tools – so he reached out after getting estimates between $8,000 and $10,000 for work from professionals.

“Pretty much anything, if you put ‘fire station’ in front of it, the price goes up,” Munson said. “I thought maybe it would be a good project to work on with the students and the school.”

Riles, an innovation coach at Meadowbrook, was excited to take the project on because it was a real-world application of the skills he teaches. Many of his students have experience with 3D printing, but this gave them an opportunity to learn more sophisticated software and apply problem-solving skills.

“We were learning a lot as we were going. It’s a way to stretch our skills with a real-world problem … we had to up our game,” he said. “There’s $10,000 worth of value in knowledge for us.”

He enlisted his students, including Wong, to design and build the storage unit. It took almost a year to complete because the group had to work around their class schedules. Wong said realizing his work would help keep people safe helped motivate him.

“It was amazing to get the opportunity, and then I realized this could be saving lives,” he said. “We worked on it in and out of school. We didn’t want to stop.”

Wong first learned about 3D printing as a student at Meadowbrook and has since progressed to other types of design and production skills. In addition to helping build the storage unit for the Weston Fire Department, he helps with Hands for Hope, a program that prints prosthetic hands for children in need.

“When I bring together what I like with my passion for helping people, cool things like this happen,” Wong said.