Week 2 Pre-trip Report

January 31, 2018

On the eve of the trip up the "rock pile" all I kept thinking about was last years attempt.....6 hours of stimulating conversation in the tight quarters of the snowcat.....One last check of the day's weather and BAM....no repeat...clear and cold...This year we were going to make it.....Unfortunately, I believed that I would be writing the post trip blog, but my assignment was to scribe the pre trip blog... So here it is, the official pre trip blog written post trip...along with some photos. 

The plan for the day seemed simple...ride up to the top, get a tour, take some photo's from the summit, and connect with the classrooms down in the valley...While connecting with the class I had planned to ask them questions from our weather unit.. I would read a definition and a volunteer would give me a response. (hopefully correct)...We focused on weather instruments, layers of the atmosphere, types of precip., cloud types, and some fun facts about the weather on Mt. Washington. The students from my class also came up with some terrific questions for the weather observers to be asked after their Q & A. 

On the days before our trip it was nice to see that the students were as excited as I was for this day.. The prep for this trip included the vocab mentioned earlier, but I also included the history of the mountain itself. We discussed the different zones, wildlife, and the reasons behind the fierce and unpredictable weather up on the summit. We viewed many videos clips from the summit as well as some time lapse videos up the auto road and the cog.  It is my hope that all of this together would foster a desire to learn more about something so great that is literally in our "backyard."

The trip was a great success... My school board has asked if I would like to give a presentation to them highlighting the day. It was also great to travel to the top with a teacher from another school. Mrs. Lewey was a great travel partner. Thanks again for such a great opportunity!