Mush! A Cross-curricular Project

Presenters: Gail Klink (Language Arts), Martin Roberts (Social Sciences), Christopher Colley (Technology), and Randolph MacLean (principal) from Eastern Townships School Board in Canada

http://www.etsb.qc.ca/masseyvanier/iditarod/intropage.htm

• All of their assignments are posted on their website. This is a way to have everything they need in one place.
• They teach everything as a team and though one teacher may be "in charge" of knowing a certain subject, all subjects are taught in all classes.

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Examples of projects

English/Language Arts

Jack London's "To Build a Fire"

They read the story, write a personal response, have an essay assignment within their groups (including a rubric and a guide)

Math

The teachers have created challenges that directly relate to things that the Iditarod teams may encounter. The participants in the workshop actually participated in some of these challenges. One was calculating the cost of vaccinations for the dogs, another was calculating the cost of materials for the person (clothing, etc.). They relate the math to actual, live experiences to make the calculations meaningful.

Social Sciences

There is a lot of geography covered during this project as well as talking about environmental issues with science. The project they showed with this subject was comparing and contrasting the regions of Alaska and Quebec. There are certain items that have to be covered (government, culture, etc.). They are many individual projects that happen and it culminates with a presentation of the group's findings.

• Once they have done all the research and done the "paper" work, they then take the experience outdoors and into the hands of the kids.

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Outdoor Day

The kids begin to understand the complexities of surveying in a hostile environment by:

• Having to build a fire
• Having to melt the snow for water
• Having to boil the water so they can drink it

This project shows what happens when the 21st century skills are performing at the optimal degree which, the outdoor project, has nothing to do with technology, but the technology is what encourages these kids to interact and enhances the overall experience

They get experts to come in:

• Shows the "how-to"
• Get a hands-on, visual experience from an expert

Things to know...

• Have to have patience
• Ride the project through the storms you will encounter
• Realize this has been a 4 year project for them and it won't happen overnight for you
• Things are constantly changing (so check back often)
• It has to be a living project that evolves with the classroom and what's happening around you
• Realize that it's never finished

The Technology...

The teacher resources link on the website contains:

• Requirements, resourcesl, etc.
• Links to everything Iditarod
• Step-by-step instructions on how to set up your own project - set up to follow a certain structure, including:
  • Page and links of ideas to get you started (a theme)
  • Page and links of different ideas for technology integration
  • Page and links of ways to evaluate the project
  • Page and links of resources

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Reflections by the team...

Today's kids have to develop those 21st century skills to survive today - this project encourages that to happen.

This project is a team builder because the kids are passionate and the teachers become passionate.

"Don't think about the technology, but what you want the kids to do"

The computer is merely the vehicle to allow you to access the information, to compile the information

Don't be afraid of the technology

Technology builds relationships with real-life people

In the end, it's about the total package (not technology, not curriculum, but everything together)