National Snowschool Program and Weather Station Pilot Project

Winter Wildlands Alliance’s National SnowSchool Program introduces K-12 students to the joy of
exploring our nation's winter wildlands. A growing national education program utilizing an innovative snowhydrology
curriculum, SnowSchool annually engages over 30,000 participants across 60 sites. However, one
potential problem with a field trip program like SnowSchool is little or no connection back to the classroom. The
result can be a weak “one-and-done” experiential program that fails to spark further learning. To counteract this
trend, Western Wildlands Alliance and the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station installed a new
snowpack monitoring weather station at the Bogus Basin SnowSchool site near Boise, Idaho. The station’s online
snowpack data and WWA’s unique web-based educational activities provided teachers with a classroom resource
that transformed learning at SnowSchool from a 1-day outing into a 3-month science exploration. To understand the
impact of this pilot project we collected pre/post student science quizzes. Results demonstrated significant gains in
student learning. (KEYWORDS: Bogus Basin, Winter Wildlands Alliance, SnowSchool, environmental education)