Take a hike … Exploring a favorite Juneau trail
In the inaugural year of Dzantik’i Héeni Middle School, an ambitious team of teachers undertook to research, write, illustrate and publish a trail guide with their students. They enlisted the help of the scientific community, and even a hippie naturalist from Discovery Southeast.
I had a lot of fun with this open-ended, semester-long project, and used it as a model for many subsequent creations with small student teams, some of which I hope to upload to this website. They’re not only great educational experiences for students; they’re sparkly, authoritative guides to our favorite hiking destinations.
The student writers and illustrators of this publication are now approaching 40 years old—parents and conceivably (gulp) grandparents! I recently encountered one on the trail, and learned how empowering it had been for her to become a “published author” in her teens. She had no copy, so I promised her I’d digitize and load Take a hike to JuneauNature.
If you know—or are— one of the authors or stipplers, email us at Discovery. We’d love to hear your memories of adventures at Outer Point. See you on the trail! RC