Rodger Roberts, “The Loafer from Ophir”, was born on July 25th, 1945 and left us to be with his old leader ‘Buddy’ on March 25th, 2015. Loafer lived in Ophir as its only permanent resident from the early 70’s through the late 80’s, making a living mining for gold, raising dogs and trapping. Though he …
The History of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race® Since 1973, mushers have challenged themselves in a race nicknamed The Last Great Race on Earth®, racing each March from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Nearly a thousand miles in length, mushers and teams travel over mountain ranges, through monotonous, flat tundra, to the western Alaskan coast …
by Martha Dobson, Iditarod Educational Consultant Every year, the race begins the first Saturday of March with the ceremonial race start in Anchorage, and now is the time to start your preparations for your students. Perhaps you have some tried and true activities and lessons which incorporate the race and the skills the students are …
By Jonathan London and illustrated by Jon Van Zyle, the Official Artist of the Iditarod, this book for 6-9 year olds describes a young musher’s experience raising and training sled dog puppies and her run with them on a sled in winter. Readers as young as 4 years old and as old as 11 and …
Patterns are a foundation of math and patterns are found in other areas, too. These young students analyzed and synthesized using dog bone treats in a pattern activity. Read more about patterns and parkas here. Math patterns for older students are here.
by Martha Dobson Uh-oh. Math and science are in the doghouse in this article with jump starts for elementary through high school math and science about doghouses. There’s a service learning project idea in it, too. Click here to read about these subjects in the doghouse.
by Martha Dobson, Iditarod Education Consultant Laura Wright, 2016 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™, posted an article about her class designing doghouses, based on information about doghouses and their features from musher Matt Failor. Looking at a sled dog’s house, one might think it’s too small for a dog to be comfortable in it. However, …
Educators looking for Iditarod science, this article explores friction, dog sleds, sled runners, maximizing a dog team’s energy, and contains two experiments with friction. Get background information on sled building from a Native Alaskan resource.Determine constants and variables and practice scientific writing and summaries.
Trent Herbst, Iditarod veteran musher and Idaho teacher, shares a unique program with audiences focusing on a very hands-on experience for his 4th graders. The students choose a project to build and it’s ranged from rolling to floating to sliding vehicles. The sliding ones, the sleds they build, get pulled by a couple of Trent’s …
Iditarod Musher Jodi Bailey wrote a post in her kennel’s blog about the numbers in her drop bags for Iditarod. Drop bags are what mushers pack in advance of the race and send out to the race checkpoints so they have a supply of gear, dog food, and people food during the race. This post …
