Healy
(Denali National Park) 

People 

Horseshoe Lake

For the school year, 2008-2009, Tri-Valley School will once again be citizen scientists in partnership with Denali National Park and Preserve and the Murie Science and Learning Center.

ALISON PROJECT begins with a Family Night which includes the parents, students, teacher, ranger, and Kim Morris and Dr. Jeffries and ice cream for refreshment. This meeting brings together the people, the plan and the purpose of ALISON.

The plan for this school year follows our procedures from 2003. Students will bus from the school site to Horseshoe Lake Trail Head. Parent chaperones, Teacher Dorothy DeBlauw, Education Specialist Kristen Friesen and 12 5th grade student embark on a hike to their study site. After a mile of hiking through a boreal forest, the group gathers on the shore of the lake and organizes their game plan. With clipboards, thermistor probes, tubes, digital readers, battery and alligator clips, the students hike assigned spots and jobs. The activity level focuses

as the students record measurements, take snow samples, manipulate the TWIT, and observe the conditions. After about 45 minutes, the TWIT and snow samples students have completed their recordings and join their classmates to monitor progress on the transect line. Once ALISON measurements are completed and equipment is packed up, the class is led in inquiry-based problem solving activities. If time and temperature and wind conditions allow, the group in a fast-paced moving activity before the return hike over hill and another hill. Along the trail back, the group is on the look-out for signs of

wildlife. After breaks for rest and water, the students arrive back at the warm school bus and back to school. At school, the students reorganize equipment and outdoor gear. They measure the snow samples. It is a time for reflection and discussion of the project and the science that occurred on their trip.

From 2003-2005, the ALISON observatory measurement program at Denali National Park and Preserve was a shared effort between Tri-Valley School in Healy, the National Park Service and the Denali Institute. For Tri-Valley School, the ALISON observatory was an activity for Patty Gallego’s 3-5th grade ecology class.

Patty has taught at the elementary level for 15 years throughout Alaska, and received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching in 1998. Working with Patty will be Pam Sousanes, a National Park Service Environmental Specialist, and David Tomeo, Program Manager at the Denali Institute.

In 2005-2006, the Horseshoe Lake site was run by Dorothy DeBlauw and Kristen Friesen. Originally from Nebraska, Dorothy has taught at Tri-Valley School, Healy, for fourteen years. She currently teaches a mixed 3-5 grade class at Tri-Valley School in Healy.

Dorothy made measurements at Horseshoe Lake, Denali National Park, in partnership with Patty Gallego during winters 2003-04 and 2004-05. Patty left the school at the end of the 2004-05 academic year, but Dorothy is going to continue with ALISON. She will be assisted by Kristen Friesen, an education specialist at Denali National Park. Kristen taught for six years in rural Alaska, including Anaktuvuk Pass and Wainwright in the North Slope Borough School District.

Patty Gallego and Marc Gould pause for a photograph on Horseshoe Lake, Denali National Park.

See the dioramas made by the Tri-valley students for WINTERFEST '08.

Tri-Valley School Students' Videos

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