During this interactive assembly Dave Freeman captivates students' attention using images and stories from his many expeditions by dogsled, but the real stars of the show are the dogs. Meeting a real sled dog is always a highlight and Dave uses his 4-legged companions to talk about team work, decision-making, the importance of exercise and eating healthy, setting and achieving goals, determination, and other life skills that are important parts of human and sled dog development.
Dave also brings a sled, harnesses, winter travel and camping gear, and other equipment. Plus, he uses student assistants to demonstrate how he and his dogs travel and live in the frozen wilderness.
Most programs last from 45 to 60 minutes and Dave can usually work with your whole school during one to three assemblies depending on the age of your students, the size of your school, as well as your schedule and needs. Individual classroom activities can also be arranged, allowing students to interact with our team in small groups, ask questions, and receive an even more hands-on experience.
Dave and his dogs
Dave's was introduced to dogsledding in 1999 when he started leading dogsledding trips with Arcitc explorer Paul Schurke. His love for dogsledding, exploration, and his desire to share the wonders of the world's wildest places with students led him to found the Wilderness Classroom, a non-profit organization, in 2001. The Wilderness Classroom has allowed over 100,000 students and teachers to learn about wilderness and improve basic academic skills through school assemblies and online expeditions. Since 2001 Dave have traveled thousands of miles by dogsled, canoe, and kayak through some of the most remote places on the planet.When he is not leading expeditions or visiting schools he and his dog team live in Northern Minnesota on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness where they introduce people to the joys of dogsledding through Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge, where Dave has worked since 1999.
Each year Dave conducts over 50 school visits and interacts with thousands of students and teachers. He has found that sled dogs are a wonderful tool for motivating and educating students, and that their desire to learn about these amazing animals can easily be channeled into math, language arts, and other core curriculum areas.
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During stage 1 we will kayak 1,400 miles from Seattle, Washington to Skagway, Alaska. The Pacific Northwest is home to a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial animals. We will be studying whales and other marine mammals, kelp forests, salmon, and many other species.
The Pacific Northwest is home to a variety of large land mammals including Grizzly Bears, and Black Bears. Above and below the surface we are sure to find plenty of things to learn about. Many of these large mammals need large undeveloped spaces to thrive and the roadless sections of British Columbia and Alaska provide the perfect habitat.
From Skagway, Alaska we will hike over the Chilkoot Pass in the footsteps of thousands of gold seekers who struggled across the pass to reach the Klondike. Many of artifacts remain from those early days, and we will follow their path all the way to Dawson City along the mighty Yukon River.
From Bennet Lake on the eastern side of the Chilkoot Pass we will canoe through a chain of lakes that form the headwaters of the Yukon River past White Horse and down the swift flowing Yukon River to Dawson City. 
From Dawson we will hike 100 miles through the mountains to the headwaters of the Blackstone River. The Blackstone flows into the Peel River, which flows in the McKenzie River, which will lead us to the Arctic Ocean. The rivers flowing through these rugged mountains as some of the most pristine wild rivers in North America, with hundreds of miles of flowing waterways between towns or roads.
After over 2,600 miles of paddling and hiking we hope to reach the Arctic Ocean before freeze up. We will spend the month of October,2010 training our dogs, and learning about native life in the Arctic. In November we will head south along the McKenzie River by dog team, crossing 1,800 miles of frozen wilderness. There are many remote native communities along our way and we are sure to learn a lot from the people we encounter.
When the ice melts in the Spring of 2011 we will transition from dogsled to canoe and paddle 2,300 miles along the historic travel and trade route pioneered by Alexander McKenzie, Samuel Hearne, and other Canadian Explorers in the 1700's. We will finish this stage of our journey in the fall of 2011 by completing the 8 1/2 mile Grand Portage which will lead us to the rock shore of Lake Superior.
After spending the winter giving presentations and making final preparations we will begin 4,800 mile kayak journey from Grand Portage, Minnesota to Key West, Florida. The first 2,200 miles will take us through the Great Lakes and out the Saint Lawrence Seaway. 
During the final stage of our journey we will kayak the length of the Atlantic Coast from the Saint Lawrence Seaway to Key West, Florida. We will be following the seasonal whale migration from the Bay of Fundy in Maine to the warm clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way we will visit cities large and small, and study a variety of ecosystems and environmental topics. We also plan to take side trips into the cyprus swamps and Everglades National Park looking for Alligators, birds, and other critters.
