The Iditarod Sled Dog race begins today. It’s one of the events that I would love to see in person some day. While I cannot get there in person this year, I can view it in Google Street View. Earlier this week Google published a new collection of Street View imagery capture along the Iditarod trail in 2015. The imagery takes viewers from the start in Anchorage, along the trail, into pit stops, and eventually to the finish line in Nome. All of the imagery can be found here.

Additional Iditarod Resources for Teachers:
For students who are interested in learning about the dogs used to pull the sleds over the 1100 mile Iditarod course, the American Kennel Club is a good place to find information about Alaskan Malamutes and Siberian Huskies. I should note that most of the dogs that run in the race aren’t pure-bred dogs. I’ve met many mushers and one of my former colleagues is a musher (not in the Iditarod) whose teams aren’t what you might expect to see when you think of sled dogs. To learn about genetics and breeding of dogs I recommend National Geographic’s article How to Build a Dog.

On the Iditarod Education Portal you will many lesson plans about the race. The Iditarod Education Portal includes lessons for math, science, social studies, and language arts. Take a look at this lesson (link opens a PDF) about friction to get a sense of the kind of lesson plans that you will find through the Iditarod Education Portal.

The Scholastic Iditarod resources include some pieces on the history of the race and history of Alaska in general.