Photo Credit: Bogus Basin SnowSchool Site (Idaho)

The 2023 SnowSchool season is underway at educational sites and nature centers across the country!

Our National SnowSchool Conference

To kick things off, we hosted the 3rd annual National SnowSchool Conference on November 16, 2022 for our winter educators. Dozens of educators from our SnowSchool sites attended, with this year’s Conference featuring educator networking sessions, demonstrations of specific SnowSchool activities, new NASA Citizen Snow Science projects and even a nation-wide snow-dance (which, at the moment, seems to have done the trick). Based on the high conference turnout and positive energy throughout, we believe our local partners are well positioned to bring the SnowSchool experience to a snowdrift near you!

On-Snow Educator Training

Additionally, the first on-snow educator training events of the season are happening across the country. At the National Flagship SnowSchool Site (Bogus Basin), education staff and community volunteers turned out on a snowy Thursday morning to learn about and brush-up on their SnowSchool leader skills. SnowSchool leaders reviewed the essential hands-on snow science activities for K-12 students, such as digging snow pits and conducting a snow-water equivalent experiment. Participants hiked out to the SnowSchool Weather Station and even got a chance to knock the rust off their belly-slide technique! The first days of SnowSchool at most sites are scheduled for early January.

To help SnowSchool educators nationwide prepare for teaching so many students across a varied and changing landscape, WWA annually provides on-snow field workshops and online-training opportunities (like our annual fall SnowSchool Conference). This year we’ll reach over 100 educators through these efforts.

Want to learn more about SnowSchool? Reach out to us at info@winterwildlands.org.