MSU News Service
BOZEMAN – Classrooms across Montana will have the opportunity to follow an expedition to Mount Everest this spring, interacting with the climbers and using equipment that lets them mimic the team’s scientific research.
Montana State University and Montana NSF EPSCoR are providing 10 Montana teachers with a classroom kit full of scientific equipment that correlates to the Spring 2012 expedition. The kit will include a GPS unit, geological samples and tools, weather measurement equipment, maps and books.
The kits are part of the Everest Education Expedition, an effort to help classrooms and citizens around the state connect with the science of Everest and the Himalayan Mountains as several Montana climbers set out to commemorate the first American ascent of the world’s tallest mountain.
Bozeman resident and author Conrad Anker will lead the Everest Education Expedition. MSU professor Dave Lageson will serve as the team’s field geologist.
The kits will allow classrooms to mirror the research of Lageson and his
Nepali Sherpa team, who will be using GPS units to catalog rock formations in the Khumbu region and on Mount Everest. Classrooms will also be able to mimic other scientific research of the team, such as conducting photo monitoring projects, tracking weather patterns and considering the impacts of high-altitude physiology.
Fourth through eighth grade teachers of grades are eligible to apply for a kit, and will be selected based on their commitment to incorporating the science concepts into their classrooms and their ideas for sharing the information beyond their own classroom.
Teachers who don’t receive a kit will still be able to participate via online resources such as lesson plans, a multimedia website and live updates from the mountain.
Apply online at surveymonkey.com/s/everesteducationexpedition. Deadline is Feb. 6.
