Students from Westside School departed March 1 on an exciting field trip—and classrooms everywhere can participate in the learning adventure simply by logging on to a specially developed website.
The new Iditarod 2001 website provides teachers and students an interactive way of learning about the famous 1,000-mile-long Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska. Students from Westside School are traveling north to witness the start of this unique and exciting event. The Iditarod 2001 website offers schools the opportunity to experience this event along with the Westside students while undertaking a variety of curricular activities.
Several quality lesson plans are included on the site covering language arts, student projects, games, and even a simulated race. The site also includes photos of Westside School's 1999 Iditarod trip and a complete hour-by-hour itinerary of this year's trip. Using the Iditarod Web Forum, teachers and students will be able to swap messages with field trip participants throughout their Alaska adventure and following their return to Sacramento in mid-March. The site will be operational through spring 2001.
Westside School is located in the Rio Linda Union School District. Leading the Iditarod field trip is Westside School teacher Suzi Owen, the district's Teacher of the Year 2000.
The Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) created the Iditarod 2001 website as a community service.