Students join mushers on the Trail

march 13, 2005

GENE JANSEN/For the Frontiersman

Imagine elementary- and middle school-aged kids around the state and in the Lower 48 interviewing Iditarod mushers at Western Alaska checkpoints deep into the Last Great Race.

As a sponsor of Lynne Gordon, the 2005 Teacher on the Trail, the Bering Strait School District is working on a live Iditarod video-conferencing project that will connect racers to fans.

The educational possibilities of such a project are huge, Bering Strait School administrator Rick Holt said. Using a grant to integrate technology into the classroom, Holt, a quality schools facilitator in western Alaska, recently inquired about expanding the educational possibilities the Iditarod's "Teacher on the Trail" program has been providing.

"What can we do to make this thing more robust?" Holt said from Unalakleet, on the coast of Norton Sound.

Holt and Bering Strait school administrators have acquired a grant to expand the educational possibilities the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race could provide through its captive, nationwide audience.

"We wanted to use technology to increase basic skills," he said. "We felt we were in a unique position to enhance that."

The program connects mushers with Bering Strait and Outside fifth- through eighth-grade students, who will be able to ask race competitors and volunteers questions about the race, using GCI's live video-conferencing technology.

"There should be a teacher at every checkpoint that's open," Valley musher Lynda Plettner said from her Big Lake home. "It could be done very easily."

When Holt heard that Plettner had withdrawn her application to run in the 2005 race, he immediately called the Big Lake kennel operator to fill a void. The veteran Iditarod musher, along with Gordon, will be the faces of the program.

Starting tomorrow, she will be on site at three checkpoints - Unalakleet (March 14-16), White Mountain (March 17), and Nome (March 18) - to help facilitate the connection between students and mushers. Depending on race scheduling, Gordon, who is from Wilmington, Mass., will also be available to talk to students while broadcasting side by side with Plettner.

"At White Mountain, we are literally 40 feet from the checkpoint," Holt said. "We are going to try to convince some of them to talk. That will be our best shot."

While talking to students, Plettner will be providing an experienced musher's commentary on the race as well as demonstrations on harnessing. She will also be facilitating local musher and checkpoint volunteer interviews where necessary, segments on the physiology of canine athletes and provide video briefs about each Native village involved - including video clips produced by Bering Strait students.

Alaskan students working with the project will be asked to do some of the interviewing and filming while Lower 48 kids will have classroom projects incorporated in the project like figuring out some of the logistical questions mushers have to figure out on an annual basis.

For example, Holt said, kids may be asked to figure out the amount of postage it would cost to mail musher supplies to each of the food drop points along the trail.

"Let the kids from the Lower 48 - from their classrooms - ask her some questions," Holt said.

Six schools from Texas, Wisconsin, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Indiana will be participating in the program along with selected Bering Strait schools and other interested schools in Alaska that employ GCI software capability.

Time is critical for the program to succeed. Any divergence from an average Iditarod race could spell trouble for critically planned connections to the students who live several time zones away.

"We're a little concerned that the temperatures will radically change the pace of the race," Holt said.