Balto, the Dog Who Saved Nome By Margaret Davidson GO ON Companion WebQuest By Jon Moss To Supplement the Harcourt (Gr. 3) Trophies Reading Series: Theme 2, What a Team!

GO BACK Introduction GO ON Now that you’ve learned about Balto and Gunnar Kasson’s adventure as they brought the diphtheria medicine to Nome, you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the journey from Anchorage to Nome.

Tasks As you know, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is held each year. This year, you’ve been selected to participate in the Iditarod. (How exciting!) First, you’re going to go on a practice run. You’ll learn about many different parts of Alaska along the way! Are you ready? Click “Go on” to begin! GO BACK GO ON

GO BACK Getting Ready to Race All good mushers need to be familiar with the area where they are racing. Click on the picture and read about Alaska. Then, answer the question at the bottom of this page. Time to warm up! How cold can the temperature get? (Click on the correct answer!) -150 degrees -60 degrees -25 degrees 32 degrees

WRONG! Go back and try again! GO BACK

CORRECT! GO ON

GO BACK Planning Your Route Do you know where to go? As the musher, you need to lead your dogs. Click on the picture to review the route. When the webpage loads, click on the “Start” box. Then, click on the red dots to learn about the different checkpoints. Read about at least one checkpoint from each of the three sections. GO ON

Anchorage Alaska Zoo Alaska Botanical Gardens Local wildlife GO BACK Anchorage Although it isn’t the capital of Alaska, Anchorage is home to about half of all the people that live in Alaska. Let’s see what makes Anchorage stand out as a great city! Alaska Zoo Alaska Botanical Gardens Local wildlife Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights) GO ON

GO BACK Portage Glacier You can’t leave Anchorage without checking out the Portage Glacier! It may be hard to spot, at times. That’s because most of the glacier is under water. But if you know where to look, there is still a lot to see! Click on the picture to look at some more photos of the glacier. Then come back to this page. GO ON

GO BACK Snowed Out? Most people in Alaska don’t travel by dog sled. In fact, many people rely on the trains. But what happens when it snows too much? Click on the snowflake to find out! GO ON

GO BACK Midnight Sun? Because Alaska is so far north, some parts of the state have sun shining for 24 hours a day during the summer, and have no sun at all 24 hours a day during the winter. Let’s take a detour to Fairbanks and see how they enjoy the summer midnight sun! GO ON

GO BACK Midnight Sun Game Do you like baseball? How about a game where the first pitch gets thrown at midnight? For over 100 years, people in Fairbanks have held the annual Midnight Sun Game. No electrical lighting is used here! Only the sun lights the field! Click on the picture to watch a brief video.) GO ON

Run, Fairbanks, Run! GO BACK Each year, the people in Fairbanks also have a 10 kilometer run at midnight. It may by 12:00am, but it’s still sunny! Click on the advertisement to see a few photos. About how many people were rumored to have been at the 2004 Midnight Sun Run? 1,250 people 3,500 people 5,900 people ↑Click one answer!↑ 10,000 people

WRONG! Go back and try again! GO BACK

CORRECT! GO ON

GO BACK Alaskan Natives Alaska has a very large Native American population. In fact, natives make up about 18% of Alaska’s population. There are many different groups of Natives in Alaska, as you can see on the map. Click on the map to learn how to say some words in the Inuktitut language. GO ON

GO BACK Native Artistry Many groups of Natives in the northwest carve totem poles as a way of keeping history and sharing their own experiences. Click on the picture (above) and take an “eField Trip” to learn about Totem Poles in Alaska. You will need to type a trip password. The password is “totems” (but without the quotation marks). It may take a while to complete the whole field trip, but it’s well worth it! (Please be patient as the tour loads. It may take a minute or two.) GO ON

Nome Webcam of Norton Sound (updated each minute!) Lots of fishing GO BACK Nome Welcome to the city of Nome, Alaska! The Iditarod trail ends here. Before heading back to Anchorage, take a few moments to check out this amazing city! Webcam of Norton Sound (updated each minute!) Lots of fishing A gold rush once happened in Nome. Many native crafts, including ivory carvings. Did you look at the Nome webcam? How is the weather in Nome right now? Sunny Cloudy Rainy Partly Cloudy Snowy Dark

GO BACK All ready? Congratulations! You’ve practiced your route to race through the Iditarod! Hop on an Alaska Airlines flight and head back to Anchorage! (Click on the picture to continue.)

On your mark… Get set… Now you’re ready! Click on the picture. When the web page loads, click on “start on the trail” to begin the race. Make choices in order to reach the end of the Iditarod trail. Then, come back to this page. GO ON

WELL DONE! GO ON

GO BACK Process You made it through the Iditarod! Bravo! Now I want you to show what you learned throughout your journey. Read all of these directions before beginning the next task. Open a Microsoft Word document. Write a brief story that shares some of your experiences on the Iditarod, just like how the Balto story shared Gunnar Kasson’s experiences. Be sure to mention some of the sights you saw along the way. (Don’t just focus on mushing the sled dogs through the ice and snow!) Look at the next page to see how your story will be evaluated. GO ON

Evaluation Beginning Developing Secure Detail Accuracy G.U.M. GO BACK Evaluation GO ON Beginning Developing (GOAL) Secure Detail You should go back and add some more detail about what you saw and experienced along your journey. You have given good detail about your experiences along the Iditarod journey. You’ve included some of the things you learned about during this WebQuest. You have included terrific detail in your story. Many parts of the WebQuest are included, and you have clearly shown what you learned. Accuracy Many of the facts you shared were incorrect. Please check over your work. Most of your facts were correct. There were some errors, however. All of your facts were correct. Well done! G.U.M. Check your work over to make sure you are using proper punctuation, grammar, and capital letters. Appropriate punctuation, grammar, and capital letters were used in nearly all cases. A few errors were found. You used excellent grammar, usage, and mechanics! Way to go! You may have challenged yourself to use advanced G.U.M. skills. Technical Make sure you have appropriately used WORD to write your narrative. In general, you correctly used WORD. There may have been a few spelling or spacing errors. Excellent use of WORD. You correctly used spell check, spacing, and other features. Congratulations!

GO BACK Conclusion Well done! You seem to have become quite an expert on Alaska. Throughout this WebQuest, you have learned about the Iditarod, Anchorage, the Northern Lights, the Portage Glacier, the Midnight Sun activities, the native population in Alaska, the city of Nome, and much more! This spring, when the new Iditarod race is held, be sure to follow the different teams’ progress since you’re now familiar with the area, and what they might experience. GO ON

Other Recommended Websites GO BACK Other Recommended Websites Interactive Iditarod Map (Advanced) Learn about the Junior Iditarod for kids Virtual Totem Pole Tour (Advanced) Alaska Video Library Online View the Northern Lights from space! GO ON

For Teachers Introduction Skills Addressed Recommendations This WebQuest is designed to supplement the Harcourt Trophies Grade 3 reading series selection of Balto, the Dog Who Saved Nome. Some tasks in this WebQuest are more challenging than others. This is intentional, so that students on different learning levels can enjoy the activity and feel appropriately challenged. Skills Addressed Reading for information, narrative writing, Alaskan culture and history, PowerPoint navigation, web site usage, general computer skills. Recommendations Because of the length of this WebQuest, students are expected to require multiple sessions in which to complete the project. Consider reviewing rules and restrictions regarding internet usage. Many of the sites to which I have linked have ad bars and could derail an improperly-trained student’s progress. Acknowledgments All images were obtained from the websites to which I have linked, or from Google Images. Special thanks to J. Brian Szender and Cheryl Pierce-Szender.

Revision 1.0, Created on June 16, 2007, by Jon Moss