On Sept. 28, seventh grade students on the Siberian team went on a field trip to Delorme map making company in Yarmouth, Maine.
Delorme has the world’s largest globe, called Eartha. It is made up entirely of actual satellite photos of the Earth, which were all taken on sunny days. Eartha stands 42 feet tall and takes 16 minutes to complete one revolution, which is much faster than the real Earth.
We also did an activity on a giant map painted on the floor. What we were learning was how to orienteer. Groups of two received a paper compass and a worksheet to write down coordinates of five different locations. After we had done that, we traded papers and tried to find all of the coordinates. We had a fun time doing that, and hopefully most of the kids will remember the new skills that we learned.
While we were there we had a tour guide named Mr. Webster. Mr. Webster was part of the smallest team to climb Everest. The climb took place 18 years ago and they still hold that title today. Although Mr. Webster himself didn’t make it to the summit, a few members of his team did, making their mission successful. They embarked on this climb with no oxygen, radios, or Sherpas. Mr. Webster took off his gloves for just a few minutes to take pictures and he ended up with frostbite on several of his fingers. Mr. Webster made it 300 feet from the summit; if he hadn’t stopped he would have passed out due to his low oxygen level.
“I was afraid I would fall off the mountain,” said Mr. Webster as he was describing his journey to the kids. Mr. Webster is truly a hero.
Anyway, this was a learning experience that really helped my class understand geography. I think it is very fortunate that students can have such an amazing visual aid, and meet such amazing people.
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