I just bumped into this article on Gothamschools.org which explains how kids at Manhattan’s PS 140 are exploring the geography, economics, and culture of South America, all without leaving their classroom. They’re using the Internet to follow the One Road South team of adventurers on a 14-month bicycle trip around the continent.

Through a program called Reach The World, kids at 60 of the city’s elementary and middle schools are getting a taste of global citizenship by following the One Road South bikers, a family traveling in Europe, a bike trek in Africa, and a Harlem teacher working with scientists in Antarctica through online videos, journals, and field notes.

So I poked into it some more, and checked out the Reach The World website - www.reachtheworld.org. RTW, as they call themselves, is an educational non-profit based in New York City, founded in 1998 by Heather Halstead and Marc Gustafson. They have additional brances in Chicago and Odessa, TX.

Says on their site that “Through our interactive website, Reach the World enriches the school day by connecting classrooms to travelers on actual journeys across the globe. RTW identifies volunteer travelers, manages web-based educational content posted by these travelers, and delivers customized curriculum and teacher training via graduate student interns, drawn from local teaching colleges such as Teachers College, Columbia University.”

Out of all the trips they have listed on the site, I checkd out one which said The Pan-American Highway. Turns out its a bike trip from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. From what I read, kids not only got to see all the wonderful attractions in places like Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Utah, but they also got to learn a lot of stuff about teh histroy and geography of each specific attraction.

For instance, this field note explains how the Moab Arches in Utah were created. So the children in schools in NYC and Chicago get to see the wonders of the stone formations at Canyonlands National Park and other attractions in Moab UT, and learn a bit about how ecology and nature works. Its almost like being in two places at the same time.

Speaking of time travel to Utah, Spectrum’s Dickens’ Festival kicks (www.dickenschristmasfestival.com/) off Dec 3. The sights and sounds of 19th Century London come alive at the Dickens Christmas Festival… a unique and unusual entertainment and shopping experience. Olde English shops, hundreds of period costumes, fortune tellers, orphans, royalty, and the “real” Father Christmas all combine to offer our guests a Christmas experience like no other!

When - Dec 3 - 6, 2008; 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Where - Dixie Convention Center, 1835 Convention Center Dr. St. George, UT 84790; Tel: -877-8LONDON or LOCAL 435-688-2990; Photo copyrights - Dickens Christmas Festival.

Posted on December 2nd, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: News