During the month of January, Carla Billups and Michelle Knapik, two fifth grade teachers at Jonathan Valley, will be spending 5 days in the snow-covered majesty of Yellowstone National Park.  They were chosen as two of the ten teachers who will participate in the Yellowstone in Winter Teacher Trek sponsored by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.   During this trip, they will be exploring the geology, landscapes, wildlife, and history of the park in order to help students make connections to the natural wonders here in North Carolina.

While in Yellowstone, Ms. Billups and Ms. Knapik plan to have video conferences and maintain a daily blog page to share this wonderful experience with their students.   The page will provide a daily journal of their activities, and it will also furnish an interactive map in which students can track their teachers’ movements and encounters in the park.  Students will be able to post grade level specific research questions on the page for the teachers to answer.  There will be an updated Animoto presentation which will allow others to view pictures from each day’s adventures.  This blog page will be accessible through the county’s main webpage and will be open to anyone who wishes to use the information in their own classrooms.  They encourage all Haywood County teachers to have students view the page, so they too can share in this unique ecological opportunity. 

For more information regarding this teacher trek, and the others offered by the museum, visit their website at:
http://naturalsciences.org/microsites/education/treks/yellowstone/index.html

To follow Ms. Billups and Ms. Knapik on their journey, check back here for more information coming soon!

(Photos courtesy of Melissa Dowland and Mike Dunn, Yellowstone in Winter Teacher Trek)