Scientists Stunned To Discover What's Hidden Under The Ice In Greenland

Led Zeppelin II, if it was recorded in the 50s

The point is that music class is in session here: and it's fundamental to know who Led Zeppelin was and that THESE musicians are brilliant in their method of taking some crunchy, heavy blooz (yes, that's the word) and ran it into a new reality. Any student of music should appreciate this.      

Honey Buzzards Feast on Deadly Hornets

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The ancient mountain in Venezuela: Mt. Roraima

 

This in Venezuela, and it is called Mount Roraima, one of the most amazing geophysical wonders in the world. For more than 500 years, scientists around the world have attempted to decipher the unique geological origin of Mount Roraima, southern Venezuela. In addition to rising almost 3,000 meters above sea level, the mountain has an unnatural morphology, which seems to have been cut with knives due to the precision of its million-year-old angles. 

This rock formation is the largest of its kind in all of South America, and is part of the Pakaraima mountain range. For more than 5 centuries, it has intrigued historians, geologists and other scientists because it is a mountain without a point. The top of Mount Roraima is completely horizontal, and occupies an area of more than 30 square kilometers, surrounded by waterfalls, cliffs and other rare geographical features in the world. 

Seen this way, it could be considered an island in the heights. Mount Roraima is home to a great diversity of endemic plant and animal species. Geologists and biologists from around the world estimate that it hides some of the species that science has no record of, since there are spaces in the mountain that still remain unexplored. 

It is thought that Mount Roraima was the product of a large earthquake in the past. However, its origin is not certain, since geological features that were created in similar ways do not have that shape. This has led scientists to think that it may be the oldest rock formation on Earth.

Yin and Yang: the pairing of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in comedy films

 

That these two gentleman (and they did have the most sincere regard for manners) tried so hard to make up for their lack of intelligence through their friendship is why on a worldwide cruise, Laurel and Hardy, making a trip to a distant monestary in the mountains of Asia, found their picture on the altar as a symbol of Yin and Yang: the polarities of energy. Although he came across as a dunce, Stan Laurel was really the brains of the team and quite skilled in making adjustments to the act in order to get the most laughs. 

And they really were very close friends.

 

Film comedy, Part II: the Hal Roach short films of the late 1920s-1940s.

Many of us who watched these kids were amazed at how smart they were--at least, in getting over on adults. Even more intriguing: the natural way these kids interacted--and for one item alone, they were decades ahead of their time because there was NO racism in their friendships. And the kids on the set were smart: they could memorize their lines (in short sequences), and the film still continued to record them and the action. They were also quite familiar with movie stars of their time, including Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

They were the Little Rascals, and they had several incarnations. To me, these are some of the better, richer, and amusing moments of their films. Among them, several stand-outs for their body of work: Jackie Cooper, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Allan "Farina" Hoskins, Norman "Chubby" Chaney, and the hardest-working little kid ever, George "Spanky" McFarland. 

Ceratopsians: The Most Spectacular Herbivores of the Mesozoic Period | D...

Capital letters

 •    People’s names

•    Nations, continents, planets (Earth), stars, galaxies
•    Public places and regions (the South; Southeast), but NOT as a direction (“Go south 10 miles.”)
•    Streets, buildings, monuments
•    Cities, states, and provinces
•    Days of the week and months
•    Holidays
•    Organizations, companies, search engines
•    Formal institutions: colleges, departments, schools, government offices, courts of law
•    Historical events, named historical times and documents
•    Religious deities, revered persons, sacred texts
•    Registered trademarks
•    Names of ships, planes, and spacecraft

•    Titles of courses as named/with code #: sociology, mathematics, science,
–    But Sociology 102; Math 274; Earth Science 300

•    A title before someone’s name: “Senator Stone” but
–    DO NOT capitalize when the job title itself is used without a person’s name: the mayor; the senator; the congressman; the judge, 

•    Capitalize major works in a title
•    Capitalize the first word of a full quoted sentence: “She lit up the room like a flare.”
•     Do NOT capitalize a fragment of a quoted sentence: “...herding cats.”

•    Relative’s titles unless possessive: Mother, Father, Grandmother;
•    my mother; his father

(the name of an official city or national location that represents the government's main building--known as the capitol: The White House)

Soup Jam Band - King of 18/Charlie Don't Know

And here they are:  Kevin Crow on lead vocals ("King of 18") and lead semi-acoustic 6-string guitar; Erik Rowen, rhythm guitar, lead vocals ("Charlie Don't Care"); Andrew Margolious, accordion, harmonica, b/g vocals; Bram Bessoff, drums, and Lee Adkins, bass:  Soup!

Job skills to get hired NOW!!

 (DO pay close attention to the paragraph about "writing")

7 Key Skills You Need to Get Hired Right Now

By Jada A. Graves | U.S.News & World Report LP 

The days of hiring generalists are gone. Today, employers are seeking hires who possess particular skills, be them technical--like computer skills, for instance--or analytical--like problem solving. In some cases, these skills are specialized and specific to particular types of jobs.

Other skills are coveted across a variety of professions. According to career experts and various sources, these are the top seven skills employers are seeking in job candidates:

Project management. The Project Management Institute (PMI) recently released a forecast predicting that between 2010 and 2020, there will be 15.7 million project-management positions created globally across seven project-intensive industries: business services, construction, finance and insurance, information systems, manufacturing, oil and gas, and utilities. In the United States, demand for project-management professionals should translate to 6.2 million jobs by this decade's close.

If you're hoping to snag one of these positions, you should provide concrete evidence of your capabilities as a project manager and also obtain the proper certification. PMI reports that those with a Project Management Professional credential earn approximately 16 percent more than those without it. During the hiring process, be sure to emphasize your distinctive strengths, keeping in mind certain components of the job. Mark Langley, president and CEO of PMI, says some of those skills include schedule and budget management, strong leadership, strategic and business-management skills, plus organizational expertise.

Writing. Nearly every job description includes a line about seeking a candidate with "strong communication skills." Before you shrug it off, consider why this seemingly minimal requirement hasn't yet become a job-listing given.

Many candidates are proving to hiring managers that they lack basic writing ability by submitting grammatically tragic cover letters and poorly constructed resumes. Although it varies from manager to manager, something as innocuous as the wrong "their" could keep you out of the running for a dream position. This is particularly true if you're looking to enter a communications field.

Those entering other lines of work don't need to be Hemingway, but they do need to elevate their written communication several notches above LOLspeak. According to Sharef, one of the main reasons young job candidates haven't conquered spelling, subject-verb agreement, and proper tense is because they live in a mobile-phone culture. "We do a writing test at HireArt and that's one of the biggest ways that people fail," she says.

Also keep in mind the way you write on social networks and in other easy-to-Google forums. A sleuthing recruiter could quickly and easily stumble across your poorly worded opinions elsewhere. 

SEO, SEM, and social media savvy. The jobs marketplace HireArt (hireart.com) matches employers with the best hires through automated interviews and online tasks that exhibit an applicant's specific skills. HireArt's vetting process found that companies are seeking employees with social media know-how. But getting a job in social media is about more than following your favorite celebs on Twitter and trolling Facebook for the funniest statuses. There's strategy involved in using a social network to promote, and employers are specifically seeking those with search engine optimization and search engine marketing skills. But "it's hard to get a job [in this field] if you've never done it before," says Elli Sharef, co-founder of HireArt.

If you have no experience actually working in social media, you might be able to use a guerilla approach to prove your worth. "Employers are open to a new type of proof," Sharef says. "If you're able to generate a large following on Twitter, that's proof that you could do the same for your target company as well. If you're a candidate who wants to break into this field, the best way is to just start doing it on your own."

Proving you're flexible could also give you a leg up. "In the beginning, if you wanted to be a social media manager, you just needed to know Facebook," Sharef says. "Now you need to know Twitter, Snapchat, and more."

Lastly, job seekers in this field should turn to the Web for courses in analytics, SEO, and SEM. Free online courses may illuminate some of the rudimentary skills, but advanced seminars are also available.

Critical thinking and data analysis. One of the more abstract in-demand skills employers desire to find in candidates is the ability to assess and analyze information, then use that information to make prognoses, recommendations, and plan projects. But your approach to prove dexterity as a critical thinker is similar to how you'd discuss other "soft skills:" Relate and emphasize both professional and pertinent real-life instances where you've utilized these skills and achieved positive results.

Sales experience. A few implied skills go along with mastering the art of the sell. Being articulate to relate the qualities of the product you're selling. Practicing the patience required to wait on customers to determine that the product is something they're interested in. Having a talent for relating to a variety of people and adjusting your pitch according to their personalities. Possessing the stamina to handle the workload and the drive to meet quotas. When a young job seeker dissects "sales experience" according to these qualifiers, it might be easier for them to see some of the advantages of the profession--particularly for companies hiring today. There are other important qualities an effective salesperson must show. "It takes a gregariousness, charm, and extroversion, and on top of that you have to be very tech-savvy," Sharef says.

If you don't have as much experience as the job description outlines, don't underestimate how much your ability to effectively sell yourself could help you in an interview.

Fluency in computer languages. Common computer languages like C++ and Python will always be necessary to know, but Sharef says companies are also looking for engineers proficient in Ruby on Rails. Staying ahead of the curve on JavaScript is also imperative: "There are huge changes happening with JavaScript. For example, when you use Facebook now, the page doesn't reload the whole page every time there's an update. It just updates a small portion," she says. "It's JavaScript that provides the ability to make those AJAX [Asynchronous JavaScript and XML] changes."

These obviously aren't fake-it-until-you-make-it skill sets. Only those with the chops will even be considered for tech positions. There are minor things you could do to stay more relevant in the industry, however. Building mobile-phone applications is currently a blossoming subsector, so you should be deft with all the operating systems. "If you're an iPhone user, borrow your friend's Android phone for two days. Learn more about how they work," Sharef says.

Problem solving. According to sites like Mashable.com, the ability to identify a problem and make intelligent plans for a successful solution is another, less-quantifiable trait that employers are eager to find in job seekers today. And similar to having social media skills, this is one where previous professional experience helps, but isn't always necessary if you have relatable real-life experience that can show your metal to the hiring manager.

Casually mentioning your expertise in this arena won't do the trick. (Other than effectively showing that you don't actually have enough problem-solving skills to solve the problem of landing a job.) The best evidence would be specific and detailed examples on your resume, cover letter, and during an interview of how you've worked to overcome obstacles and achieve success.

Odysseus: the man and the myth

A good essay or research paper should have the thesis statement (the purpose of the paper) within the first two paragraphs; I normally encouraged my students to produce their thesis by the first paragraph so the reader (me) could see in what direction the paper would go.  I also offered an alternative:  use the 2nd paragraph, and use the 1st paragraph as an "introduction" to set the background.

I also insisted that the topic sentence (opening sentence idea) of each paragraph be relevant to the rest of the ideas presented, as well as a conclusion paragraph that summarizes the material presented.
I've put them in italics to show emphasis on how-what-why they are significant to the main idea of that paragraph.  As a topic, I chose the story of one man's fame and the price he paid for it:

the classic Greek myth of Odysseus (Ulysses):

Odysseus: The man and the myth

The men sat at their benches, stretching and straining their muscles to pull the oars.  The sail was still and no wind blowing—which was another ominous sign of potential danger.  Their captain stood at the bow of the small wooden ship, looking ahead for signs of land—and the possibilities of supplies and rest for his weary crew.  They had spent 10 years as fighting men on a distant shore, and now they were eager to return to their homes, their families, and safety.  Yet, each member of the crew knew that his life and safety was as much measured by the potential of a horrible death because of his captain and the incredible risks he took for fame and glory—and the cost of their lives.  Although future generations would consider the saga of these men as a made-up story, they did not know this—nor did the adventures and risks they would face be of any comfort in their minds.

    Greek myths celebrated the lives of heroes and their adventures.  In particular, the legacy of the man known as Odysseus (Ulysses), king of Ithaca, has become one of the most famous.  The tragedies and victories that came to him were a direct response of two factors:  his clever, cunning wit, and his proud, arrogant boasting.  Odysseus endured many hardships that brought death to his comrades, sorrow to his home, and misery to his life.  However, his life story, surviving by luck in some instances and with the help of the gods in others, has become a classic of endurance and patience.  In return for his actions, Odysseus was tormented by 10 additional years of wandering, facing death and grief from monsters, enchanting sorceresses and goddesses, and a stormy raging ocean.

    Odysseus’s crafty mind and quick thinking were both an asset and a penalty that he paid through his actions.  The theft of Menelaus’s wife, Helen, by the Trojan prince, Paris, brought together the ships and men that had pledged loyalty to each other, including Odysseus's status as King of Ithaca.  Reluctant to leave his newborn son, Telemachus, and his loving wife, Penelope, Odysseus faked madness in order to remain home, pretending to plow the seashore and sew salt as seeds for crops.  However, his trick was revealed, and he was forced to join the others.  At Troy, the two armies fought for 10 years with much bloodshed without either side showing victory.  Odysseus’s plan to leave a huge wooden horse as a token of withdrawal was the deciding factor.  The Trojans brought the gift inside their city walls, and while the inhabitants slept, Greek soldiers slipped out from a hidden compartment and opened the gates to their waiting comrades.  The destruction of Troy burned for days, and Odysseus was recognized as a victorious military planner.   However, his glory was soon to be lost on the open seas as the ships set sail for their Greek homelands.  During the destruction of the city, Odysseus had destroyed a sacred temple of Poseidon, god of the sea.  From the words of a priestess, the warning curse was issued that the crime would not be forgotten. 

    His foolish bravery nearly cost him his life at the hands (and appetite) of the Cyclops Polyphemus, who kept Odysseus and his party of men hostage in a cave.  Once again, Odysseus's need to display his wit and intelligence would be a costly gesture.  Caught in the act of stealing the giant’s flock of sheep and foods, Odysseus boldly assumed that the name of Zeus would be his protection.  Instead, he saw his men torn apart and eaten raw, and was assured that he would share their fate.  By luck, the Greeks were able to lure the Cyclops into a drunken sleep by filling him with wine—a new tasty treat.  Odysseus put his wits to work, and his men used a sharpened pole to blind the monster.  They managed to escape by hanging on beneath the bellies of the sheep flock when the Cyclops reluctantly let the animals out to graze.  However, Odysseus was not content to immediately flee: he took time from the safety of his ship to taunt the blind Cyclops by revealing his real name, only to have the giant heave huge boulders from a cliff above and barely miss crushing the surviving sailors.  Polyphemus’s agony was heard by his father, Poseidon, who would ensure that his son’s tormentor did not see home for years to come. 

    The Greeks then landed on another island, inhabited by a sorceress-goddess named Circe, famous for turning men into animals.  The crew was turned into pigs, but the messenger god, Hermes, saved Odysseus.  Bewitched by the comforts and pleasures of Circe, Odysseus and his men lost another year away from their families.  Although he was warned by her of other dangers, his men would not obey his commands and unleashed a bag containing the Four Winds, thereby blowing them off course while they were within sight of Ithaca.  Perhaps Odysseus was too well known for his tricks, or perhaps his sailors thought he was hiding another secret from them as he had the Trojans.

    Odysseus also risked his life several times by challenging and confronting supernatural beings.  First, he allowed himself to hear the song of the Sirens, who were known for calling men to their death on the rocks that framed their island.  Although he was safely tied and unable to move, the message that he heard whispered were the thoughts and messages from his wife and son, and the words nearly drove him insane with grief.  He further endangered his ship and men by being forced to chose between two hideous monsters, the six deadly heads of Scylla or the whirlpool of Charybdis.  He also traveled to the land of the Dead in the Underworld, seeing his fallen friends and mother, who told him how he had caused her death when the years had slipped by and he had not returned. 

    Temptation was always a problem for Ulysses, as well as his family.  Although he found himself in the arms of beautiful women, his wife remained loyal to him, even as suitors laid claim to his property and kingship.  His son was forced to endure the taunts of older, stronger men who insisted that the missing Odysseus was dead, and Queen Penelope herself turned to trickery to gain time in hopes that her missing, lost husband would return.  Her efforts were in vain when a servant girl revealed how Penelope unraveled a tapestry each night that she was weaving.  When Odysseus finally did reach his home, he found himself hiding as a beggar, unable to reveal himself until he could believe that his wife’s heart was still honest and true.  It was perhaps more a reflection of his character than hers. 

But the story of the unfortunate wandering Greek hero did have a happy ending:  Odysseus drove out the rival suitors, Penelope proved herself faithful, and Telemachus finally met the father he had not known.  It still should be recognized that for all his sharp ways and clever thoughts, the brave Odysseus was unable to find his way home with his sailors until they had lost their lives and he had spent 20 years of his own.  His name lives on as a symbol of arrogance, loss, and sacrifice in the face of vanity, risk, and pride.

(c) MDLOP8 1997

A master of disguise: the octopus has a thousand-plus options

 Mr. Now-I-See-You, Now-I...wait, what?

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/octopus-squid-rna-editing-dna-cephalopods

Blue, hairy, and scary!

 

The blue hairy frogfish, scientifically known as Antennarius striatus, is an intriguing species renowned for its remarkable appearance and unique behaviors. Characterized by its distinctive, hair-like skin filaments, the blue hairy frogfish boasts a variety of colors, including blue, yellow, brown, and green. This remarkable coloration, coupled with its textured skin, allows it to blend seamlessly into its environment, making it a master of camouflage.

Typically inhabiting tropical and subtropical waters, blue hairy frogfish are often found on coral reefs or amidst rubble and debris on the ocean floor. Their hunting strategy is as fascinating as their appearance. As ambush predators, they use a specialized lure called an esca, which mimics the appearance and movement of small prey like worms or shrimp. This deceptive lure attracts unsuspecting prey, which the frogfish then quickly engulf with its large, extendable mouth.

Unlike most fish, frogfish are not adept swimmers. Instead, they "walk" along the ocean floor using their pectoral fins, which function much like legs. This unique mode of locomotion, combined with their ability to change color to match their surroundings, makes them nearly invisible to both predators and prey. The blue hairy frogfish is a perfect example of nature's ingenuity, showcasing an extraordinary blend of adaptation and survival strategies.

Landfill harmonic - Inspiration, Motivation, and Music from trash

"Animalia" alphabet Word Search for children and adults!

A memory of graduate school: a fellow student brings in books for us, puts us in pairs (small class, of course!) and asks us to do a timed participation lesson in word recognition--with pictures--in a contest with the others. The book was called "Animalia." The professor almost had to stand on her chair and yell for us to stop--because we were SO enthusiastic. It was funny to see ourselves turning back into eight-year-olds and saying things like "Cheater!" and trying to scoop up answers from comments made out loud.

I have done this with elementary, middle, and high school students--and they all loved it. I've also given away dozens of this book--and it is available on Amazon.com for as little as one cent plus $3.99 s/h. 

Note: there is NO answer key included in the book, but you can look it up online--or ask me for a copy of the file. And EVERYTHING on each page corresponds to the featured letter of the alphabet. (Plus, there's a secret image of the author himself as a little boy.)
Happy searching!! And here's the letter "C" for all you crafty cats!

Get the word bird math problems here for science and teaching!

And now:  I give you the bird...with a word problem or two.  (Actually, I always struggled with word-math problems, but I know there's an easier way.  Sure there is: do 'em with an interesting topic!

Answer sheet? Are you kidding? YOU'RE doing it.)

Bird Facts

Some cuckoos “borrow” nests and parents for their offspring.  The female cuckoo finds nests of her own species that already have eggs in them.  She gets rid of one egg from each next and lays one of her own in its place.  Thus, other birds, such as sparrows and wrens, raise her chicks for her.  To find out more about birds, solve the following math problems, but don’t let them drive you “cuckoo.”

1. The deepest diving bird is the emperor penguin. 

It can dive 298 yards minus 24 feet below the surface.  How many feet is that?

2. The longest living bird on record was an Andean condor, which lived 77 years minus 260 weeks.

   How many years did it live?

3.   Dodoes became extinct in the year 8620 minus 6939, largely because they were killed by explorers and the hogs and monkeys which explorers introduced to their island habitat.

   In what year did they become extinct?

4. The fastest level flights are made by the spine-tailed swift, which has been recorded at a speed of 121 minus 14.75 miles per hour.  How fast is that?

5. Male ostriches can reach a weight of 356 pounds minus 176 ounces.  How many pounds does it weigh?

6. The largest egg laid by any known animal was that of the extinct elephant bird.  One preserved specimen measures 60 minus 26.3 inches around the long axis.  How many inches is that?

7. The incubation temperature for most species of birds is about 200 minus 96 degrees Fahrenheit.  How many degrees is that?

8. The smallest bird, the bee hummingbird, weighs 1 pound minus 15.944 ounces.  How many ounces does it weigh?

9. The heaviest turkey on record weighed 80 pounds minus 17 and ¼ ounces.  How many ounces did it weigh?

10. The largest nest on record is 24 feet minus 174 inches wide.  It is 20 feet deep.  It was built by bald eagles.  How many feet wide was it?

11. The puffin can hold about 428 minus 398 fish in its beak at once.  No one knows where most of these mysterious birds spend the winter.  About how many fish can it hold?

12. The roadrunner likes to race along the ground and can reach speeds of 27 miles per hour minus 5280 feet per hour.  How fast can it travel?

13. The number of eggs laid at one time is called a clutch.  It can vary from one egg to (37x5) minus (41x4) eggs, depending on the species.  How many eggs is that?

14. The longest average incubation period belongs to the wandering albatross.  Its eggs normally take about 90 days minus 264 hours to hatch.  How many days is that?

15. The mallee fowl of Australia builds incubation mounds that have been measured up to 15 feet in height and up to 53 feet minus 6 yards across.

  How many feet across is that?

Alaska final exam (8th grade): Monitored survival in the field for science credits

 

Note: Yes, I get excited about the 49th state. I spent a year there.
This is about a final exam for 8th grade students in Alaska. They spend 48 hours on an island to finish the class--and have to forage for food--AND cook it. This story is also dedicated to the 12th grade students in Finland, who lead the world in education. They have to design a virus AND a cure for their science final exam. This is also dedicated to all the education publishers and all the people who insist that "standardized tests are the best way to evaluate progress." Yeah, sure. That's why I wrote a book about creative education. Go sell your ideas to someone else who doesn't have the experience or know better to question why. The same for you administrators who talk about measuring results. Tell me about "curriculum and state standards."

I was stationed on the Aleutian Island of Adak--and no trees except for those planted by visitors in a small area--from 1977-1978. I went to Anchorage for a break. I know about the 100+mph winds: the "williwaws." They could pick you up off the ground for a good four feet if you were small enough and opened your coat like a sail. I ate caribou, and halibut: fish the size of a small car that were hauled up in boats that trawled for them. I saw the midnight sun and the midnight day, and the Northern Lights. I saw live volcanoes just miles away and no fast way off the island if they erupted. I saw bald eagles fly off with two swoops of their wings. Alaska is an amazing place--and it's not for those who want an easy life.

I met someone on Adak from my Long Island, NY, high school (Class of '71), who later adopted a girl from Nanchang, the same city in China where I found a job as a teacher. No such thing as coincidences, eh? I also went to Anchorage and drove on the Al-Can Highway going to Canada. Not easy. And I saw the lost town that was swallowed up in the great earthquake of 1964. I remembered reading about that as a kid after it happened.

If you want to REALLY know about this amazing wilderness, read travel writer Peter Jenkins' book, "Looking for Alaska" on Amazon.com. He even took his family there. Or if you like fictional/non-fictional history, read James Michener's "Alaska."

From https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/06/alaskan-science-class-exam-wilderness-survival/590890/

BACK ISLAND, ALASKA —   “Oh my god, I feel like a murderer,” exclaimed 13-year-old Bonnie Bright. “I’ve killed so many things on this trip.”

Sporting pigtails, glasses, and Xtratufs—the brown neoprene boots affectionately called “the Alaskan sneaker”—Bright didn’t look like a serial killer. Yet in her hands was her latest victim: a chubby sea cucumber the color of burnt umber. Bright cleaved the slippery echinoderm down the middle, then removed several white slivers of meat and cooked them over a fire she’d built. It was time for breakfast.

All around her, on the rocky gray beach, 19 of Bright’s classmates were performing similar drills. In total, the Coast Guard had dropped 103 Schoenbar Middle School students—the majority of Ketchikan, Alaska’s eighth graders—on six nearby uninhabited islands to survive for two days and nights last May. I’d accompanied Bright’s group to Back Island, where, like the rest of their classmates, students had each brought nothing more than a 10-by-15-foot sheet of plastic, a sleeping bag, clothing, and whatever additional supplies (rice, knives, foil, twine, matches) they could fit into a 12-ounce metal coffee can.

“The survival trip,” as it’s known in this isolated island community, has occurred annually for 45 years. It serves not only as the students’ final science exam but also, more importantly, as preparation for growing up in the unforgiving wilderness they call home.

Sitting at a square table in Schoenbar’s library last year, Stephen Kinney, the mind behind the trip, told me that he had no idea it would become such a long-standing tradition. The amiable retired educator said his main goal had simply been for students to enjoy school (because growing up, he never had).
“Learning should be fun,” Kinney, 77, explained. (He and everyone else in this story are identified with their age as of last year’s survival trip.) “There needs to be some kind of a hook. [Students] need to be involved in their education.” He recalled the time he found a dead sea lion and brought it to his science class for dissection; decades later, students still mention it when they see him around town. “That’s a really critical piece of education: to catch students’ imagination, to grab them,” he said.

Kinney, who grew up in Maine, moved to Ketchikan in 1965 to teach eighth-grade science at the brand-new Schoenbar Middle School. The lifelong outdoorsman was surprised by how many of his students didn’t know basic survival skills, such as how to build a shelter or start a fire. So in 1973, along with a fellow teacher, Don Knapp, he brought a group of eighth graders to Settlers Cove, a state recreation area 18 miles north of Ketchikan. “Our goal was to have them live off the land,” Kinney said. “To realize that the land provides if you understand it.”

That was the Ketchikan students’ very first survival trip. In the years that followed, more students and teachers joined. When Kinney and Lyle Huntley, another eighth-grade teacher who’d become the trip’s co-organizer, both transferred to the seventh grade, they brought the concept with them. They launched an annual two-night camping trip that taught basic outdoor education in preparation for the big eighth-grade trip the following year.

Today, both grades spend the last six to eight weeks of the school year on a Southeast Alaskan science unit—environmental science in seventh grade, and safety and survival in eighth grade—that culminates with each grade’s much-anticipated overnight adventure. (While students aren’t required to go on the trips, the majority do. The school does not allow students who have significant behavioral issues or who are failing three or more classes to attend.) Other teachers integrate the themes into their curriculum at the end of the school year, too: For their final English project, for example, the eighth graders must choose a book set in Alaska.

“It’s so Ketchikan,” Kinney says. “I mean, Ketchikan is living outdoors, is hiking, is fishing, is boating, is being out there. And so learning to do it safely makes a lot of logical sense, but also was a lot of fun.”

On a crisp sunny day last spring, the U.S. Coast Guard ferried Ketchikan’s eighth graders to their respective islands. Each group consisted of approximately 20 students (separated by gender), one teacher leader, and three or four parent chaperones. (For safety, the adults had access to cellphones and radios—the kids did not.)

On Back Island, the leader was 29-year-old Jamie Karlson, a sprightly music teacher with a pixie cut and a quick laugh. Right away, she directed the students to find shelter. In groups of four, they headed to the woods and employed techniques they’d learned in class: draping plastic sheets over twine strung between evergreens, and wrapping rocks along the edges to weight them down. Shelter secured, they played cards, gossiped, and hid from one another during a round of sardines, exhilarated with the freedom of being outdoors on a school day.
Later in the afternoon, Karlson blew her whistle three times, signaling the students to assemble on the beach. “You have 10 minutes to collect tinder, kindling, and fuel, and then it’s time to gather food,” she said.

Karlson wanted the students to begin searching for food several hours before that evening’s 8:08 p.m. low tide, explaining that “it’s best to forage things as they're getting uncovered.” Since Southeast Alaska has some of the biggest tides in the world, changing as much as 25 feet in six hours, each year’s survival trip is timed around lower-than-average “minus tides,” which provide the best opportunities for foraging.

The girls scattered, gathering wood and old-man’s beard, a pale-green lichen that makes a good fire starter. One of the chaperones, Tony Yeisley, approached his daughter Savannah. In his hands was an unruly clump of dried moss, cedar, and seagrass. “That’s going to light up like a Roman candle,” he told his daughter with a grin. An easygoing plumber who plays the electric guitar, Yeisley had already been on four survival trips: his own, 34 years prior, and three of his four older children’s. This trip, with his youngest, could be his last.

When it came time to forage, the students seemed unsure how to begin. They cautiously fanned toward the tideline, scanning for anything that looked edible. Gabriella Mas decided to look for limpets, tiny marine snails that cling to intertidal rocks. But about 15 seconds into her hunt, she shouted, “There’s none!” Karlson called out, “They’re tricky; look closer to the water.” A few moments later, Mas exclaimed to her partner, “Oh my god, there’s so many here. There’s like a million—use your knife!”
Limpets, easy to spot and pry from their perches, turned out to be the protein of choice for many students’ first meal. Most of the girls boiled them with rice and bouillon cubes from their coffee cans, along with a variety of sea lettuces salvaged from the shore. (One lettuce called “sugar rack” was unanimously declared to sound better than it tasted.)

On the horizon, seals peeked out of the water, and a humpback whale swam by with her calf. Enormous bald eagles skirred overhead. The girls relaxed quietly around the fire, or in their shelters, before tucking into their sleeping bags at 10 p.m., just as the last rays of light faded from the sky.

The first Alaskan city along the famed Inside Passage, Ketchikan is known for several things: commercial fishing (77 million pounds of salmon, halibut, and other seafood passed through its docks in 2017, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service), rich Native American culture (it’s home to the biggest collection of totem poles in the state), and cruise ships (more than 1 million passengers visit each summer).
It’s also famous for its “liquid sunshine.” Located in the 16.8 million acre Tongass National Forest, the largest remaining temperate rain forest in the world, the region’s lush mountains and streams are fed by an average of 152 inches of rain each year. (By comparison, neighboring Seattle averages 37 inches.) Strong winds are common too; in 2018, a winter storm clocked gusts of 112 mph.

While the land area of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough (Alaska’s administrative equivalent of a county) is larger than Connecticut, it has just 13,754 residents. When considering both land and water, a mere 0.1 percent of the borough is inhabited, according to Jonathan Lappin, an associate planner for the borough.

This combination of extreme weather and extreme remoteness is why many view survival education as a vital part of Ketchikan’s curriculum. Sam Pflaum, a 29-year-old electrical worker and commercial fisherman, told me that the eighth-grade trip was “the most useful thing” he did in school, saying: “It probably has saved my life.”

He cited the night of December 27, 2012, as an example. While he was on his way home to Ketchikan, the pull cord snapped off his boat’s engine. It was nearly dark, so Pflaum and his companion decided to spend the night on the beach. In the 15 minutes of daylight that remained, buffeted by wind, rain, and snow, they managed to light a fire and set up a shelter—skills Pflaum had learned a decade prior. Despite experiencing 50-mile-per-hour gusts, a foot of snow, and hypothermia, they made it through the night.

To Pflaum, the survival trip is an indispensable part of growing up in Ketchikan. The skills acquired, he explained, are “not something that just grows dust in the back of your brain”; they’re something many residents use. “[In] a lot of places, the wilderness is somewhat canned—it’s in a park or whatever—but up here this place is still pretty wild,” he said. “It’s the most beautiful place on Earth, but it will kill you.”

The sun rose at 4:30 a.m. on the survival trip’s second day. At 7:30 a.m., Karlson roused the students; low tide was a little more than an hour away, and they needed to scavenge their breakfast. Hungrier and more confident than they’d been the day before, the girls were ready to expand their boundaries beyond limpets. The husky sea cucumbers were tempting, but the young survivalists had no idea how to turn them into food.

The chaperone Brett Summers took charge. Summers, a lifelong Ketchikan resident who was there with his daughter Piper, wore Dickies jeans under his Xtratufs and a baseball cap over his black ponytail. As several students gathered around, he pulled a knife from his belt loop and cut a six-inch cucumber open. A gush of seawater poured out, revealing its spindly guts. The girls peppered Summers with questions and concerns: “Ugh, why is that happening?” “Is that his butthole?” “It looks like spaghetti!” “Does that hurt?” His response: “Eat it—it won’t kill you.”

Hunger, indeed, soon vanquished squeamishness. Pairs of girls ventured off to different parts of the island; within 10 minutes, they pranced back to camp with their prey draped across their arms.

Karlson, who jokingly referred to the cucumbers as her “breakfast bacon,” fluttered between groups, answering questions and observing dynamics. She would, eventually, have to grade each student in 10 categories, including fire building, shelter arrangement, staying dry, cooking food, common sense, and attitude. “It’s fun to see them out here in a totally different environment,” she told me. “They have to work together in ways they probably never would in a classroom.”

All told, the morning’s haul was impressive: In addition to limpets and sea cucumbers, the girls tracked down gumboots, rock scallops, urchins, red rock crab, and tiny shrimp. They had also grown more adventurous with their recipes; one group even created seaweed “wraps” filled with rice and sea cucumber. One student, Makena Johansen, admitted that foraging was easier than she thought it would be, and that the sea cucumbers tasted better than she’d imagined. “Yeah,” added Wileena Baghoomian, another student; “At first they were gross, but now they’re kinda good.”

The rest of the day was spent on a fire-building contest, a hand-built stretcher race, a talent show, and, of course, more foraging. Despite their growling stomachs, the students’ morale remained high. Many conversations centered around food—one student, Julia Spigai, said she’d never again forgo a box of leftovers at a restaurant—but they didn’t complain much.
They seemed to understand that the discomfort was part of the 45-year-old rite of passage their friends, siblings, and parents had all completed. “They’re preparing you for living in Alaska so you know you’re not gonna die,” Savannah Yeisley said matter-of-factly. “A lot of people don’t think they could get stranded, but it happens.”

Around the campfire that night, the chaperones actually lamented the unusual abundance of sun; they worried the good weather was making the trip less challenging for the kids. “It’s not as much of a survival trip in this weather,” said Todd Bright, a stay-at-home dad who had been on two prior trips (his own, in 1987, and his older son’s). “Out here you’re not going to starve—it’s the rain and cold you’ve got to worry about.”

That tough Alaskan attitude permeates the culture of the survival trip, and is shared by students, parents, and even those responsible for orchestrating the event. “You can’t help but think of all the things that could go wrong—but they haven’t,” says Sherilynn Boehlert, the principal of Schoenbar Middle School. “They’re going to be hungry, and they’re going to be fine.”

In this age of helicopter parenting and standardized exams that require teaching to the test, it is hard to believe Ketchikan’s survival trip has, well, survived for so long. Yet despite the massive commitment involved—especially on the part of teachers, who aren’t paid extra for their time—no one seems to question the importance of the trip, or the likelihood that it’ll continue for another four decades.

Talk to people from Ketchikan for long enough, and they will invariably recall their own trip: the rain and wind, the sweet Dungeness crabs, the after-dark incidents that caused the trips to stop being coed (everyone wants to take credit for that). Kinney, who’s probably been on more survival trips than anyone, tells vivid stories of eighth-grade girls skinning an octopus on a tree branch, the chaperone who brought—and slaughtered—a chicken one year, or the time it snowed “three to five” inches during the trip. In this town, the survival trip is education, yes, but it’s also history, community, and tradition.

“Education constantly needs to go back to where the real world is, and tie what you're learning into what really life is all about,” Kinney said. “That's a part of why the survival trip strikes such a rich chord with people. Students learn by doing—by seeing life.”