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Iditarod Is Frigid Fun

Web site name: Iditarod: Themed Activities and Projects
Web site URL: http://www2.grand-forks.k12.nd.us/ms/iditarod/iditarod.html
Web site creator: Jeanie Olson, Schroeder Middle School, Grand Forks, North Dakota

Sixth-grade teacher Jeanie Olson has always had an interest in dogsledding, Alaska, and mushing. In fact, she raised Siberian huskies while she was in college! Now Olson is the Webmaster of Iditarod: Themed Activities and Projects, a unit of Iditarod activities developed by teachers at her school.

"When we began this unit in 1986, our current reading textbook had a unit on survival with The Serum Run of 1925 as a feature," Olson recalled. "Since the Iditarod Sled Dog Race is an annual event run to commemorate that event, it made sense to for us to check it out. Each year, as we followed the race, its mushers, and their strategies, the unit just blossomed. It became a cooperative effort of our team of teachers. Our ideas and activities grew each year until we put them together in a collaborative unit."

Olson's Web site is an effort to share the Iditarod unit's ideas, projects, activities, and examples with other educators. Olson hopes the site will show teachers ways to enrich all core subjects with Iditarod activities. She believes that the students' strong involvement in the unit and in the site makes these Ititarod activities unique.

"Each year, the students contribute something to the unit, whether it's building sleds, writing poetry or stories, or creating artwork," Olson told Education World. "The students also are heavily immersed in technology -- scanning; videotaping; creating movies; working with .jpgs, .gifs, and ftp; uploading; creating Web pages; evaluating Web design; and more."

The Web site offers printable literature units that correspond to several related books, such as Black Star, Bright Dawn, by Scott O'Dell; Woodsong, by Gary Paulsen; and Polar Bears Past Bedtime, by Mary Pope Osborne. Folder game ideas for the books Balto and Stone Fox are also included. One of Olson's favorite projects is a plan for building an I-Kid-A-Rod sled, a collaborative activity that can involve an entire school!

Article by Cara Bafile
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