Happy New Year! This year will bring a fun and exciting race, as well as bring history to life as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1925 Serum Run. Mushers are busy preparing for the Iditarod in many ways, including the development of their race plan. Each musher will create a plan that includes their desired run/rest schedule, which checkpoints they will spend more time at than others, and how many dogs they will have throughout different points in the race. Plans can clearly change, but this helps mushers prepare their drop bags prior to the start of the race.

Drop Bags at a Checkpoint. Photo Credit: Terrie Hanke.

What is a drop bag? I’m glad you asked! A drop bag is a re-supply bag that mushers send to specific checkpoints before the race starts. When a musher comes into the checkpoint, they will then have extra supplies waiting for them. As you introduce students to drop bags, start by asking them which supplies they think would need to be re-supplied throughout the race. If a musher were to start the race in Willow with everything that they needed for themselves and their team all the way to Nome, their sled would be loaded!

How many drop bags can a musher send to each checkpoint? A musher can send up to three drop bags to each checkpoint and each bag cannot weigh more than 50 lbs. It seems like 50 lbs is quite a bit of weight, but give students a minute to consider the weight of the dog food alone.

Drop Bags from Veteran Musher, Laura Neese. Photo Credit: M. Hamilton.

In this lesson, students will get to practice multiplying and dividing multi-digit numbers, while learning more about how mushers prepare extra supplies to fill drop bags prior to the Iditarod. Access the full lesson here! 

Please send me an email and let me know other ways that you have used the race in your math lessons: emailtheteacher@iditarod.com. I hope to hear from you!