We are wrapping up one of my favorite units!! We have been learning all about the Iditarod dog sled race that is held in Alaska every year. This annual race is run 1,131 miles across Alaska's rugged terrain to commemorate the original serum run of 1925 that saved the town of Nome from a deadly outbreak of diphtheria. Dog teams were used to carry the serum from the train in Nenana to Nome. People thought it was going to take 2 weeks to deliver the medicine, but it only took 5 1/2 days for the dedicated and courageous mushers to arrive! This amazing race has captivated the students and led to some wonderful conversations! At the beginning of the race, each student randomly picked a musher to follow. Some were very successful and some ran into trouble. Check out our pictures!
This picture shows the route that the mushers followed. Since 2011 is an odd year, the race run along the southern route this year. Notice the dogs are all pinned next to the checkpoint that they are at.
Many mushers are clustered close together. It was a very tight race this year!
Five of the mushers we followed had to scratch from the race. If a racer "scratches", it means that they have withdrawn from the race. Three of our mushers had to scratch because they were looking out for the best interest of their dogs, while two mushers suffered injuries that required them to stop. (They are both OK)
Things were heating up at the end of the race!
I thought this might be a better view of the checkpoint names. Thoughts?
Many mushers don't participate in this race to win, they do it for the honor of saying they have finished the Iditarod. The Iditarod is often referred to as "The Last Great Race On Earth" because it is the only race where it is just the musher, their dogs, and nature. They can not have help from anyone or anything. Two of our mushers decided early on not to push their dogs and just take their time. They were racing at the end of the pack. There is a special award given to the last place finisher called "The Red Lantern Award". When the last musher crosses the line, they blow out the light in the lantern sigaling that everyone has arrived safely and the Iditarod has been completed.
I even learned how to turn on my smartboard! Every day, I would post the results and everyone was in charge of finding their musher and writing down what place they were in, what checkpoint they were at, and how many dogs they have left. The number of dogs is important because each musher has to finish the race with at least 5 dogs.
