Home

Introduction

This Week

Teacher's
Base Camp

Classrooms

Field Reports

Student Projects

Map Library

Chat Room

Media Library

Trail Guides

Members

Search



                       






California Backcountry Briefing


For the Week of September 20-24



Please print ( from list email or web ) and add to your workbook

Recap of previous week

During the last week, classes were asked to get logged-on to the student listserv at camp99-outposts-l@rain.org. Please continue to have your students post their introductions on the list if you haven't been able to post yet. Any questions about log-ins and passwords can go to camp@rain.org. This is their chance to see their own words online, and to be shown how important thoughtful communication is when it will be viewed by many other people - especially their own peers.

If you have had students post to the outposts-l list, then make sure they have time to read what a few of the other students have posted to help them realize the breadth and scope of becoming a part of a virtual distance learning community. We will also be posting the student weekly briefing for the coming week there, so they should read that on Monday the 20th via their own class account. You have the option to have one student print the message out and read it to the class ... or if in a lab they can each read it.

Please also have the students look at the interactive calendar link from the left side bar. It is filling up with subjects and activities through the end of October.

This Week for California Backcountry

Check out the new Teachers Base Camp from the left side bar. Your access log in is camp99, password is keys99. This is where you will find a non-email version of the briefings, including this document, the key to the Passport, and other teachers materials for your use. Only teachers have access to this area.

This week we begin our actual expeditions and have activities in all tracks for you to enjoy. In Social Studies we begin exploring Native American Lifeways; in reading we encounter and consider the inspiring words of authors who have reveled in outdoor life in the Backcountry; and in Science we begin our exciting Paleontology studies. You will see how easily these themes weave together through out the week as Native American life from social studies is also discussed in the reading track, while prehistoric life is introduced in the Science track with a link to the discovery of the 13,000 year old Arlington Springs Man on Santa Rosa Island.

A special hands-on activity this week can be the introduction of the Ammonite fossil. Help them realize the enormity of time as they consider that they are holding something 400 MILLION years old in their hands as they pass it around the classroom. This specimen is very like the ones being found in California, and was actually gathered in Morocco.

A special event for this week and next is a live Internet Dig. You will need to reserve a one-hour block of time for the class to participate between Thursday the 23rd and Friday the 1st of October, between 8am and noon. We will use Internet searching to uncover answers to posted questions in a guided environment. Send your reservation to camp@rain.org. Many teachers have been finding Dig partners using the listserv at camp99-teachers-l@rain.org. As soon as we get confirmations, we are entering them in the interactive calendar. At your scheduled time, join us in the chat room and all instructions will be provided. They will be reading challenging questions that include an imbedded BUTTON that links them to a site where the answer is. They will then read through those materials to dig-out / find the answer and then use the back button in the upper left of their browser to come back to the chat room and post their findings.

Upcoming Preparation

Next week, Sept 27-Oct 1st, the Internet Digs continue, and the new activity is for teachers-only. The Backcountry track teachers will be meeting online on Tuesday the 28th between 3-5pm for a professional development chat. Theme for this chat is Engaging in Dialogue Online. The session will provide suggestions for opening productive, educational exchanges between students, and between students and Trail Guides, that promote learning in a supportive distance learning environment. Please join us at 3pm in the chat room September 28th. RSVP to camp@rain.org.