Iditarod lessons

While the Iditarod captures the attention of many Alaskans, the next generation of race fans are getting hooked around the country as well.

In classrooms around the country, teachers often use the Iditarod to teach numerous lessons in a fun way. Studying the Iditarod can be a lesson in geography, math, science and technology, all wrapped into one race.

"It is one of the highlights of our year. The kids really get into it and follow the race very closely on the computer," said Grady Young, a sixth-grade teacher at Central Elementary School in Illinois. "For about a month before the race, we study the trail, which hasn't been an easy lesson this year, and we use math to figure out how long it will take the teams to get from one checkpoint to the other. The entire thing is fascinating to the students.

"I don't think they [students] have an idea of the enormity of the race, and how long it really is," said Young, who came to Alaska on vacation to see the 1997 Iditarod. "They have no idea what it is like in rural Alaska."

In the past, classrooms have e-mailed questions to reporters covering the race. Questions ranged from personal ones -- Why doesn't Susan Butcher's husband run the Iditarod? -- to complex ones -- What vitamins and nutrients do the mushers feed their dogs?

"You have to understand that these kids have never been in Alaska and don't really understand how the entire race works," said fourth-grade teacher Susan Poppert, also of Eisenhower Elementary School. "There is no place they have ever been that doesn't have a road going to it with a fast-food restaurant in the town. They don't realize that you can't drive along the route. That's why they are so amazed by everything. When I put a cutout of the state of Alaska on the map and it nearly covered the entire rest of the country, I saw their light bulbs go on.

"That's when they realized just how long the Iditarod really is," Poppert said. "It's neat to see them coming to school talking about who is leading and where all the mushers are. The first thing they do in the morning is to log on and check out the standings."

Poppert said her students have also added science to the list of subjects they use the Iditarod for. The students gathered information and data about sled runner materials. Using snow and ice, the students tested several materials for friction, trying to find the most efficient materials.

"Through those experiments, I think they understood that mushers have to think about everything from the dogs right down to the sled runners they are using," Poppert said.

The Iditarod Trail Committee is helping educate teachers as well through the Teacher on the Trail program.

Teachers must apply for the program a year in advance, and ultimately, one teacher is picked to follow the race all the way to Nome, filing reports, which can be read on the Iditarod's Web site.

With so many classrooms around the country studying this year's Iditarod, there were many teachers reaching for a way to explain one puzzling issue to students everywhere.

"How do you explain to fourth-graders that there was no snow in Anchorage, Alaska in March?" asked Poppert. "That's something I need you to explain to me first, because I don't even know the answer to that one."