A Virtual Hike Along the Appalachian Trail for Elementary Students.

[ActivateMHC]

Hello,

My name is Vicki George and I work with a non-profit organization called Activate Martinsville-Henry County(MHC). We are advocates for Biking and Walking in our area. We promote use of the local trails to make a healthier and more active MHC. We also work very closely with the schools through the Safe Routes to School Grant to help promote healthy choices in school as well as Walking and Biking to school as a means of a healthier transportation.

We have done a few Virtual Walks to New York. Letting students stop along the way to learn something about the area they are traveling through. One of our teachers has decided that he would like to do a Virtual Walk on the Appalachian Trail I am very excited about this idea but am also struggling in some departments with it. The things that I have found to be most challenging is mapping the trail. I have tried to map this entire trail from Springer Mountain Georgia to Mt. Katahdin Maine through Google maps. I have not had much luck with doing this just because of the fact that Google maps does not recognize the trail or I am oblivious to how to make it recognize the trail. I need to be able to work with the map to make it so that I can move the different groups along the Appalachian Trail as they walk. I do not have superior skills when it comes to map making I will not tell a fib! lol....

With that being said I want these 3rd, 4th and 5th graders to get as much out of this as possible and make it as much fun as possible. The plans are for them to do it as a class so that puts three different groups walking the entire length of the Appalachian Trail. Now mind you they are doing this in 16 weeks which seems awfully short but we are talking groups of 71, 66 and 64 students that will be working together as a team to reach Mt. Katahdin first. The winning group that reaches the end destination first will get t-shirts that say I walked the Appalachian Trail as well as a celebratory party to recognize that they did. I am very excited about this entire idea and just want to make it as much fun for the kids as possible. The whole start them out right and they may be our next group of hikers.

I am very interested in any ideas or if you can help me out in making this a great virtual walk that I have every intention to use again and again.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post and feel free to give me some idea or let me know where or what I can do to get the map right!

Vicki George
Activate MHC

[Pedaling Fool]

Click on the map to the right http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site....BFA3/Home.htm

[Odd Man Out]

What a great idea for the students and the trail. I hope the WB community can come up with loads of great activities.

You can have them eat a 1/2 gallon of ice cream in PA
Learn about John Brown in Harper's Ferry
Look up the wind speed on Mt Washington
Attend Trail Days in Damascus
Have them clean up a shelter, or other trail maintainance project
Celebrate Hike Naked day in June

OK, maybe not that last one.

[WalkinHome]

What a great idea for the students and the trail. I hope the WB community can come up with loads of great activities.

You can have them eat a 1/2 gallon of ice cream in PA
Learn about John Brown in Harper's Ferry
Look up the wind speed on Mt Washington
Attend Trail Days in Damascus
Have them clean up a shelter, or other trail maintainance project
Celebrate Hike Naked day in June

OK, maybe not that last one.

Or maybe they can have their own Trail Days (water pistols mandatory!) and other trail festivals.

Along with John Brown and HF there is a ton of historical information along the trail, Spy Rock, Murphy Memorial, Confederate and Union sites abound ( a cool way to bring in your History teachers etc).

I would contact ATC and get whatever they could provide, maybe leftovers from the Teachers/Trails program. ATC should also be able to help with telling you if there are any thru hikers in your area willing to speak to your kids.

Countless opportunities. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

[mweinstone]

at some point a real bear must be brought into the school.
make gorp the only snack allowed in the lunchroom
sleepover in the gym with bondfire and stargazing
macs and cheese for a week in the cafateria
send gift food boxes to real thruhikers
measure and blaze a one mile trail thru the hallways
donate a dollar to every trail organization in the country
build a stone carin in a hallway
take a zero. kids can do whatever they want at school for a day.
darken the school and night hike the halls with headlamps

and the number one thing a teacher must do during the race is:

put trail magic out in front of the school each morning.

[Graywolf]

Cool idea. I dont have the link, but you can download a layer for Google Earth. Just google, "Appalachian Trail, Google earth" it willtake you there. I also think the ATC website has links. www.atc.org

Graywolf

[Wise Old Owl]

http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site...ng_and_GIS.htm

click on down load "Iagree"

grab shelter and centerline kml

launch in Google earth

click here and get dvd

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-...sions-dvd.html

[Trailweaver]

You could get someone who has hiked (thru hiker, if you can) to come and tell you something of their experience - also have them bring in their gear. The kids love to see the "real" gear.

I would also have them prepare a trail meal for a lunch one day. It goes without saying that they have to have GORP occasionally while working on this project.

Write an essay about the most unusual thing they brought with them on the hike and why it made the trip.

Write an essay about the most unusual person they met on the way there.

I can see a whole crop of students who are going to hit the trail in a few years! Good luck with this project and let us know how it goes.