Denali Dudes

above: The Dudes repeat the Jr. Ranger oath.

 

We can’t leave a National Park without giving the Dudes an opportunity to earn another Jr. Ranger badge. So, before we left Denali, they added another one to their collection. We also stopped by the Murie Science and Learning Center for another educational opportunity.

 

 

 

The Jr. Ranger booklets are park specific so that there is new information in every booklet. And, there is just enough overlap of information from to park to help reinforce what they have learned in the past. Their knowledge of plants, animals and geology should be pretty broad by the end of the trip.

 

 

 

The Ranger that inducted the Dudes offered them an official ranger hat to wear during the “ceremony”. The Lil’ Dude enthusiastically accepted the offer. The big Dude declined since he was already wearing part of his own “uniform”, a camouflage fleece hat. He doesn’t go anywhere without it because it keeps his long hair out of his face. I told him we would make an effort to get his hair cut this week so that he wouldn’t feel compelled to go camo everyday.

 

 

The Denali Park also has a building devoted to education and research. The Murie Science Center is named after Mardy and Oalaus Murie, reserachers and preservationists whose work and dedication culminated in the establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It is a meeting place for scientists and has a small, but very well done interactive learning area for all ages. We used our time there as a “school day”.

 

left: The Dudes learn about forest fires.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most comprehensive area was in wolf research. The park has 10 packs of wolves with a total of 71 wolves. We were lucky enough to see one on our bus tour. It was also the first time I had ever seen a wolf in the wild.

 

above and left: The Dudes learn about wolves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Big Dude and I spent time learning how to interpret animal tracks and the Hippygeek and Lil’ Dude spent time learning about the impact of development on the environment. They also had a large collection of animal skulls and even some fossils of dinosaur tracks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

right: The Big Dude counts the rings on a slice of black spruce.

 

 

 

 left: The Dudes work on bird identification.

 

 

 

 

 

right: The Big Dude works on track identification.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The curriculum guides we are using for home schooling are weighted toward reading, writing and arithmetic. So, I am excited that the Parks system provides amazing learning opportunities in the natural sciences that I could never provide myself. My backround in science is pitiful and I don’t keep a collection of skulls in the tow car!

 

above: The Lil’ Dude tries to lift a very heavy moose skull and antlers.

 

Wanda Li: Cheer up, Arnold. A famous poet once said, “All the world’s a field trip, and all the kids in our class are merely guinea pigs”… or did Ms. Frizzle say that? – excerpt from the Magic School Bus