Educators, Prepare for the Race Now
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 …
Book Review: Sled Dogs Run
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 …
Preschool Math: Parkas, Patterns, and Iditarod
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.
Doghouse Math and Science
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.
Doghouse Math and Science
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, …
Counting and Cardinality, Measurement and Data, Number and Operations, Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Grades K – 3
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 on Dew …
Friction and Sleds
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.
Friction, Sleds, and Why It’s Important to Get It Right
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 …
Operations and Algebraic Thinking PLUS Number and Operations – Fractions, Grades 4 – 6
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 …
Themes for Litters and Classes
Educators, getting your year underway and finding something to capture your students’ interest–and this is something to use throughout your year–find out about themes for litters of pups and for your class.
