FOREST LEAVES — March 8, 2006

School stages annual cart race
BY CHRIS LAFORTUNE
STAFF WRITER

Kelly Price and her Roosevelt Middle School Iditarod squad, Three-6 Mushers, completed their entire race around the school before she fell off the sled.

Trying to get the best time, the team of six was hauling right at the end. As they crossed the line, Price fell off the cart.

"I hit this lady," Price said. "And I have a hole in my pants."

Roosevelt hosted its annual Iditarod sled race Friday, culmination of its study of Jack London's "The Call of the Wild."

Seventh grade students constructed their sleds - actually, wheeled carts - starting Feb. 27, seventh grade language arts teacher Dan Courtney said Friday. The project combines skills students learn in science, math, language arts and social studies.

Thirty teams each with six students competed in the sled run. During the race, students stopped at stations to sing a fight song and answer trivia questions on "The Call of the Wild" and the Yukon Territory, Courtney said.

There were also skills tests where students run their sled around a figure eight and in a backwards Y.

"We just time all that they do and post the time," Courtney said. "There's no prize, really. The prize is if they don't kill one of their teammates by the end of the week."

Constructing the sled helps students learn teamwork, Three-6 team member Emily Freedman said.

"I was scared we would all hate each other by Thursday," Freedman said. But that wasn't the case.

"We worked well together," teammate Andrew Advani said.

Not that everything went smooth. The team was a little behind in getting its blueprints done, Advani said. Most teams were finished with the design by the end of day one. Three-6 took until day two.

"I think it helped, because our sled didn't fall apart," Advani noted.

Chris LaFortune can be reached at clafortune@pioneerlocal.com.