Sedona Fire District firefighters dropped in on West Sedona School on the morning of Monday, March 25, to use their technical rope rescue skills to help teach engineering principles to the first-grade students of Patty Falsetto and Maritza Serrano’s classes.

The visit was part of the school’s “Engineering is Elementary” Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education program. Each grade level has a kit that focuses on a subject area, with first-graders learning about simple machines. Simple machines are non-electrical tools that change the magnitude or direction of a force.

“For a couple of years, we’ve utilized [SFD] and the [U.S.] Forest Service through their rescuing program to demonstrate how they use simple machines to help in rescuing hikers and to show the students how by adding simple machines like levers, that will give us strength to move items,” Falsetto said.

SFD was represented by Capt. Jonathan Scaife, engineer Matt Fischer and firefighters Nick Granada, Andrew Richards and Jacob Tavrytky. After demonstrating how they rig an anchor system, the firefighters let the students experience how pulleys work through a tug-o-war demonstration that let them successfully pulled Tavrytky off his feet before a session on SFD’s vehicles.

“I’m a born and raised native Arizonan [and] been in [SFD] for about two and a half years, started as a firefighter EMT and worked up through operations technical rescue, then the technical rescue technician and then the paramedic,” Tavrytky said. “I enjoy the outdoors. Off duty [I’m] hiking, mountain biking, skiing.”

SFD will be returning to WSS in April to discuss fire safety for students in kindergarten through third grade.