The Iditarod starts on March 3! This reminded me of my days in the classroom. In math class, my students would use the race to calculate speed, predict locations and track the racers. My kids LOVED this unit!
Does anyone else out there use the Iditarod to teach math? What types of topics do you cover, and what other exciting activities can students participate in that relate to this great race?
Adrienne Phillips Web Content Editor - Promethean Planet
Great idea Adrienne! I quite like Formula 1 and found it was a fun way of covering topics such as percentages, cost, currency conversion and general calculation problems.
I have personally never used the Iditarod to teach a lesson. What a cool idea! I think I may just give it a try this year.
~Cara
The Iditarod isn't well known here in the UK, but it sounds like it may be well suited for Functional Maths lessons. As Selda mentioned above, Formula One is a popular topic for real-world maths skills and handling data, as there are so many statistics and discussion points to look at, from lap or race times to track lengths and angles of corners; I imagine similar data can be gathered from the Iditarod race.
Another 'racing' project that springs to mind, which should engage students in maths, is the BLOODHOUND Supersonic Car project. Students can look at measurements, weights, previous records, environmental factors, etc. And because it's current, they can follow the project as it develops. You can find more information and teaching resources at www.prometheanplanet.com/.../bloodhound-ssc-stem-resources.aspx
I never used the Iditarod to teach math either, but I was looking online and I found the Official website, and it has great resources for teacher to use who might be interested!
iditarodblogs.com/.../math-curriculum-for-the-classroom
Or, here is another lesson with a video. 4th Grade - Elasped time, but it could cover many other objectives
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/the-iditarod-math
Hi Adrienne,
We have a couple of schools that really get into the Iditarod through their in class discussions on weather, climate and landforms.
Some have used the resource flipcharts from Planet to help in the discussions. www.prometheanplanet.com/.../english
Some teachers have also used it as a follow up on their reading of the Call of the Wild, White Fang and Iron will
I had not thought about using this as a Math activity other than to determine time and distance of the race.
66 mushers took to the trail in Alaska this weekend. They will travel almost 1000 miles over the next 8 days until they reach Nome, Alaska.
Are you tracking the racers? Clocking their average speed? Tracking them on GPS? Exciting times for these mushers and their dogs. Would love to hear how you are using this great race to teach math. Please share!
We teach about the Iditarod in 1st grade, and always culminated the unit with a live videoconference! This live session does not have to happen during the actual race (at our school it never did because we could never be fast enough to schedule those sessions). We scheduled our connections with Kigluait Adventures (www.kigluaitadventures.com), an organization that raises dogs for the Iditarod. Among other things, they train these animals to perform well during the race.
During our live videoconference we discussed animal habitats, food, rations, and studemts discovered many applications to math and science.
The REAL treat to these sessions, though, was the live connection. After learning about the race and what it takes to get there, someone from Kigluait took the camera outside and hooked it to a sled already set for a small race. The children in our classroom yelled the commands ("stop," ahead," "left," right"), and the dogs pulled the sled as were commanded. Furthermore, each session ended with our children howling... That made the dogs at the other end respond.
Live connections are amazing when we teach our students in 21st Century environments. They address cross-curricular topics and can enhance the curriculum in ways that one-teacher-led activities never would.
Love Love LOVE this! Thank you for sharing Adina! Hopefully, next year this will be happening in classrooms! What a fantastic experience for the students.
OMG Adina! I love it too!! I may look into doing that next year with some of our students!!