Go to school on the Sleeping Bear Dunes

9 & 10 News reports that the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is offering free virtual distance learning programs with classrooms or students at home via webcam:

A teacher can schedule them with a Sleeping Bear Dunes ranger to provide students with a 40-minute one-on-one interactive session.

We’re told the programming consists of more than 10 different lessons.

Some include learning about the great lakes, and aquatic invasive species.

“For those that would normally be coming on a field trip, we can still give them some of that experience,” Sleeping Bear Dunes Education Technician Emily Sunblade said. “The last six months we’ve probably done 20 to 30 of these programs with the expectation that we will be doing significantly more this fall.”

Through this system, we’re told rangers can interact with students not just locally, but from all over the world depending on how a teacher sees these lessons fitting into their curriculum.

Head over to TV 9 & 10 for a video & get all the details on the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s Distance Learning page.

The photo of the Sleeping Bear Dunes was taken back in 2007 by Dave McLaughlin. See more in Dave’s Northwest Lower Michigan album on Flickr.