New Winter river education program for kids

Winter River is an adventure challenge for fourth graders learning to appreciate cold weather recreation and orienteering activities in an outdoor setting.

Mississippi Park Connection and the National Park Service designed the new youth education pilot program to help schools meet geography standards by navigating a snowy adventure course.

This expands the park's education programming and allows students to experience the recreational and natural aspects of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area in the winter.

The challenge begins in the classroom to get students in the right mindset and to anticipate some of the finer aspects of outdoor navigation. Specially trained River Educators visit each classroom to give a lesson on the course and how to best prepare for cold weather activity.

Students worked as a team to learn how to follow a trail map by using a compass to identify landmarks, and complete a mental or physical challenge at each landmark. The challenge is modeled after adventure racing, which is a growing international team sport similar to the popular reality TV show, The Amazing Race. However, instead of racing like the pros do over multiple miles and days, the students complete a short course that brings them through parts of Fort Snelling State Park in just under two hours.

Challenges include hunting for a stuffed animal, finding a hidden cache using a compass and orienteering skills, identifying trees and animal tracks, completing a snow tube relay, and remaining silent for one minute while listening and viewing natural surroundings.

This pilot program allows Mississippi Park Connection staff, River Educators, and the National Park Service to learn on site how to improve the program to best suit the needs of students and schools. The main challenge in 2019 was extreme cold and “snow days” leading to cancelled dates. Despite this, five schools participated in the 2019 pilot, with 165 students running the course, and 368 students participating in the classroom lesson.

Minnesota educators seeking more information should contact David Kappelhoff at dkappelhoff@parkconnection.org. They can also apply to be a River Educator on our job page.

This project was made possible by a grant from the National Park Foundation through generous support of donors from across the country, including Union Pacific. All of our education programs are made possible by funding from Mississippi Park Connection. Consider supporting these incredible youth enrichment programs with a donation.