Appalachian Trail
A Picture Sent to Us from
Jennifer & Steven Burrough & Abby on the Appalachian Trail
Mrs. Riggs' Class learned how living things depend on one another along the Appalachian Trail in science. They took a virtual "hike" along the trail by tracking the progress of Jennifer and Stephen Burrough and their two year old German Shepherd, Abby, through their Internet journal entries beginning on March 22, 1999 through Oct. 8, 1999.
The students took special note of the plants and animals mentioned by the Burroughs as they traveled over the Southern Mountains, the Virginia Highlands, the Mid-Atlantic Lowlands, Southern New England and Northern New England.
The Appalachian Trail is a 2,160 mile footpath that follows the Appalachian Mountains from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The Burroughs posted their mail drop itinerary and the students sent them a note of encouragement as they were completing their hiking adventure. They were delighted to get an answer back from the Burroughs. Click here to share it. We wrote them again. And we received a second letter and pictures. We are hoping to arrange a KTLN teleconferencing session so we can talk with each other through interactive television soon. Click here to read e-mail about this project.
Susan Collins
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Susan Collins beside Students' Illustrated Map of the Appalachian Trail |
Students figure Map Direction, Mountain Height, and Distance Traveled |
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Learning that Hardin County Math Resource teacher, Susan Collins, had walked on the Appalachian Trail this past summer, we invited her to come and share her experiences. Mrs. Collins arrived dressed for the trail with a backpack full of medicine and food like the type she used when she accompanied her son and his Boy Scout troop on a 50 mile trek along the Appalachian Trail.
She also brought topographical maps and helped the class figure out directions of starting and stopping point locations and how high the mountains they climbed were. Everyone enjoyed her lessons, especially the exciting part about the bear who woke up one of the helpers who had fallen asleep with snacks in the car while waiting at a rest area to pick up the hikers at the end of the day.
