Engaging
Students in a Global Study of Wildlife Migration and Seasonal Change
Who:
Students Across the North America
Over 17,000 classrooms, representing more than 630,000 students, are
participating in the 2008 Journey North Program. These students are
from all 50 U.S. States and 7 Canadian Provinces.
What: Track
Wildlife Migration and Spring's Journey North
The journeys of a dozen migratory species are tracked each spring. Students
share their own field observations with classrooms across the Hemisphere.
In addition, students are linked with scientists who provide their expertise
directly to the classroom. Several migrations are tracked by satellite
telemetry, providing live coverage of individual animals as they migrate.
As the spring season sweeps across the Hemisphere, students note changes
in daylight, temperatures and all living things as the food chain comes
back to life.
When:
Every Spring
The Journey North program extends for four months each year, with
live inter-active programming from February 2 until June 1. You can
help collect data about a dozen different migrations and signs of spring
beginning each February.
Spring is the focus of the Journey North program, but two migrations
are also tracked in the fall—the monarch butterfly and the whooping
crane. Students can also plant a tulip garden to prepare to announce
spring's arrival; they can send a monarch butterfly to Mexico as part
of the "Symbolic Migration." The full year's investigation
of natural events and cycles helps teachers incorporate inquiry-based
teaching and learning into the curriculum.
Free
Journey North is a free online educational service, supported by Annenberg
Media. Established in 1991 with a grant from the Annenberg Foundation,
the Project uses media and communications to improve math and science
education for the nation's 44 million school children. Journey North
is supported as a model for math/science education reform.