About Lewis & Clark

Videoconference links kids, re-enactors

Ten-year-old Katie McTearman last month took part in a national videoconference tied to the Lewis&Clark re-enactment. The program had a character-development theme and Katie had a unique, personal view of the subject.

(l to r) Katie McTearman and Eddie Strode

The one-hour videoconference linked 4th graders from Green Pines Elementary School in west St. Louis County with high school kids from Minnesota and re-enactors camped in Montana. The show was broadcast both locally and on a nationwide, online site.

With help from the Cooperating School District, the broadcast was available to schools across the country. It was shown locally on Charter Cable's educational Channel 22.

The broadcast explored how the words "perseverance," "cooperation" and "courage" were demonstrated by the Lewis&Clark, Led by St. Louis area teachers, the re-enactors are traveling the route of the original 1804-06 exploration to the Pacific Northwest.

Katie gave a demonstration of "perseverance" as she hobbled to the mike on crutches.

Since last September she's been trying to recover from not one--but two--ankle fractures. Both breaks have been to the same ankle.

The first break came last September when she fell off her bicycle. She said it took her two or three weeks of hard work to get used to the crutches. "They hurt my armpits and it was hard to walk with just one leg," she said.

She was just about healed when she slipped on wet grass and broke her right ankle again. "The second break was on the same ankle but on the other side," she said. She was back on crutches and persevering again.

Besides taking part in the videoconference, the Green Pines 4th graders had three weeks of character study focused on Lewis&Clark in February. Then, they competed to see who would be one of the 15 kids picked to be on the May conference program.

The kids did research on three subjects. One was on finding out how the original discovery crew found their food. Another was how they coped with the bitter winters. The third was about the problems of going over the Bitterroot Mountains.

Katie said part of her research involved how injuries and illnesses were treated on the two-year wilderness journey. She was especially interested in comparing medical practices "of today with those used in the past."

Scott Mandrell as Meriwether Lewis

William Clark was the medical officer on the original trek. On the re-enactment, St. Louis teacher Scott Mandrell as Meriwether Lewis is the current crew's doctor.

He told the videoconference udience that dry weather has led to an unusual problem: a super-abundance of ticks. "Much of the time recently, I've been tick-picking," he said.

Ten-year-old Eddie Strode's videoconference job was to "give real world examples" that demonstrate "courage." He used two personal examples. One was "my younger sister's courage in learning how to ride a two-wheeled bike."

His other was his own experiences in learning to use his skateboard.

Eddie said most interesting part of the whole Lewis&Clark study was learning how to do research. He used both written sources and the Internet in his studies.

(l to r) Katie Fogarty, Makenzie Hackman and David Branam

Ten-year-old Katie Fogarty gave examples of the Lewis&Clark crew's "courage." She used the example of Sacagawea's leaping into the river to recover critical items when a boat overturned. The Indian woman was the only female on the first discovery journey.

She also mentioned the need for both "perseverance" and "courage" when facing the crossing of the Bitterroot Mountains. "They kept on going west even though they only saw more and more mountains and didn't see the ocean they expected," she said.

Ten-year-old David Branam's part in the videoconference was to give a dictionary definition of "cooperation." He said, "It means working together as a group."

He got a chance to practice cooperation during his classroom study. He was on a five-member team that built a scale model of Fort Mandan. That's the camp in the Dakotas where the first Lewis&Clark crew spent the winter.

In making the model, David said, "Our team worked well together."

Students in all five 4th grade classes at Green Pines Elementary worked on the Lewis&Clark project.

The contributions from Minnesota came from Hinckley-Finlayson High School. The school is in Hinckley, Minn., a town about halfway between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth, Minn.

Mandrell broadcast his part of the videoconference while outdoors in a snowstorm near Fort Peck, Montana, on the banks of the Missouri River.