Classroom Activity Plan for Integrating Technology into English, History, Science and Math
Theme: The Iditarod Dogsled Race
Curriculum Area: English, history, math and science
Time necessary: Varies (approx. 2 weeks)
Suggestion: You may want to group students and let the group choose a racer to track through the race.
Objectives:
Become familiar with the state of Alaska
Be introduced to the history of the Iditarod.
Be able to track the race.
Read Call of the Wild by Jack London
Learn of the weather in Alaska
Introduced to the geography of Alaska
Estimate the distance to be traveled each day
Graph the progress of the sledders each day
Materials:
Call of the Wild books
Television
Movie Balto
Map of the territory of the race
Computer with Internet access
Procedures:
English Teacher
Have students read Call of the Wild
Have students keep a journal of the race
Show movie of Balto or another dogsled race
History Teacher
Talk about Alaska becoming a state
How the Iditarod race got started
Culture of the Alaskan people
Science Teacher
The weather in Alaska (cold, snow, wind, etc.)
Animals in Alaska (wolf, bear, otter, whale, etc.)
The geography of the land (volcano, floods, etc.)
Math Teacher
Take a map of the route in scale and convert to miles
Estimate the fraction of the race covered each day
Estimate the time the race will take
Estimate the distance covered per hour
Evaluation:
Each area will evaluate the work they assigned to the students.
Suggested Sites: