Online Learning Activities
Iditarod: Race Across Alaska
Through various online activities, students get an inside look at the annual 1,100-mile dogsled race across Alaska’s windswept tundra.
- Grades: 3–5, 6–8
The “Iditarod: Race Across Alaska” activity (grades K–8) brings to life the annual 1,100-mile dogsled race across Alaska. Through various online learning activities, students get first-person perspectives of the “mushers” and follow the progress of the race, while exploring Alaskan geography, studying extreme winter climates, and applying research and critical reasoning to a discussion about the treatment of sled dogs.
- Students can Explore the Trail from start to finish with this interactive map, clicking on checkpoints for more details.
- All About Alaska offers reading material on the state, including its history, population, weather, and more.
- Historic Iditarod shares the origin behind the famous race, and why it continues to be held annually.
- Students can read all about Young Mushers, including a young blind woman who finished the race, a 17-year-old who plans to complete the Jr. Iditarod race and the Iditarod when he turns 18 later that year, and three generations of one family who’ve hit the trail. Plus, students can read an interview with a junior musher and an interview with two teenage girls who’ve competed in the Jr. Idiatrod.
- Students can meet the Jr. Iditarod winners of 2008, 2006, and 2005, and the Iditarod winners of 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, and 2004.
- The articles and interviews with expert mushers in A Dog’s Life offer reading material on the topics of sled dog training, the controversy about dog racing, a dog’s family life, how they make it across the trail, and their diet. Plus, read about Texas, a champion racer dog who was just two years old when he made his first run.
- Students can take a multiple-choice quiz on the subject, be a musher on a virtual run, or read an interview with three mushers.
- Finally, students are asked to share their opinions and Write About It, by penning an essay on how sled dogs are treated.
Learning Objectives
By participating in the Iditarod: Race Across Alaska learning activity, students will:
- Explore the geography of Alaska and the Iditarod by navigating an interactive map of the route and competing in a virtual sled race
- Generate questions for champion mushers to learn about their lives and the lives of sled dogs
- Research the checkpoints along the Iditarod and recreate the race in the classroom
- Write persuasive essays on the treatment of sled dogs
- Subjects:Arctic Animals, Cooperation and Teamwork, Charts and Graphs, Environmental Conservation and Preservation, Outdoor Activities and Recreation, Content Area Reading, Independent Reading, Reading Assessment, Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences, Persuasive Writing, Data Analysis, Ratio, Proportion, Scale, Real-World Math, Time and Measurement, Natural Disasters, Dogs, Iditarod, Racing, Tundra, Real-World Science, Antarctica and Arctic Regions, Geography and Map Skills, Climate, Winter, Snow, Ice, Blizzards, Social Perspectives on Science, United States, Landforms and Topography, Maps and Globes, Animal Survival and Adaptation, Visual Arts, Winter Themes, Virtual Classrooms, Sports, Communication and the Internet, Transportation
- Skills:Fact and Opinion, Point of View, Charts and Graphs, Maps, Persuasive Writing
