MakeShift
Photograph by Doug Adesko
The Scenario: There was a time when high school, however trying and tedious it often seemed, was still a refuge from the realities of the big, bad world. Alas, those days have gone the way of the slide rule and mimeograph machine. The threats that once stalked only distant cities and bad horror movies are now just as likely to find their way onto a high school campus as anywhere else.
The Challenge: You’re in metal shop one sunny morning when an announcement comes over the PA system that the school has been ordered into a lockdown. The teacher must lock the door to the room and let no one out for any reason. The announcement doesn’t explain why (A riot in the cafeteria? A crazed gunman on the loose in the area?) or how long you may be stuck here. The lights and power are still on, but you quickly discover that the cellphone system has been shut down or is not working, and neither is the school’s internal phone system. And if the school has a wi-fi network, it’s also dead.
In order to find out what’s going on, or let all your parents — who will no doubt be freaking out any time now — know that you’re OK for the moment, or to alert someone to the fact that your buddy Chester here will need his insulin shot within the hour, the class concludes it needs to try and establish some kind of communication with folks outside the school. Thinking this will at least keep everyone in the class focused on something besides the crisis, the teacher gives her OK.
The metal shop itself is on the top floor of the school, with a row of windows that open and face out toward the surrounding community, the nearest houses of which are about a quarter-mile away.
Your Items: The shop itself has an assortment of sheet metal, wire, angle iron, and other assorted metal parts available. You also have the following: a half-dozen cellphones of different makes and models, a laptop computer with a wireless card, a walkie-talkie that one of the janitors left, and a cordless telephone — though, as we’ve said, the line it’s connected to in the school is down.
Using some or all of this stuff, you need to devise as many ways as you can to try and create a communications link with the outside world. And yes, if you pull it off, it will be counted as extra credit toward your final grade. Good luck!
Send a detailed description of your MakeShift solution with sketches and/or photos to [email protected] by May 11, 2007. If duplicate solutions are submitted, the winner will be determined by the quality of the explanation and presentation. The most plausible and most creative solutions will each win a MAKE sweatshirt. Think positive and include your shirt size and contact information with your solution. Good luck! For readers’ solutions to previous MakeShift challenges, visit makezine.com/makeshift.
Lee D. Zlotoff is a writer/producer/director whose numerous credits include creator of MacGyver. He is also president of Custom Image Concepts (customimageconcepts.com).