IT Infrastructure & Management

In Ascent of Everest, Wash. Teacher Puts Education on Pedestal

By Andrew Trotter — May 28, 1997 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

In the first hours of last Friday--Nepal time--computer teacher Jason Edwards was trudging slowly up a snowy rock face toward the summit of Mount Everest with a teammate.

Two continents away in Puyallup, Wash., colleagues and students at Stahl Junior High School were stealing anxious moments at school computers checking Web sites for any news about his progress in the thin air at more than 26,300 feet above sea level.

Principal Michael E. Warr said everyone at the school had been on “pins and needles” after reports earlier this month of the deaths of several climbers descending from the 29,028-foot peak. The deaths turned out to have occurred on the mountain’s northern approach, in Tibet, not the southern route being tried by Mr. Edwards’ and about 10 other teams.

“Just the fact that there was a near miss, there was a substantial disruption that day,” Mr. Warr said, adding that newspaper, radio, and television reporters descended on the school afterward.

Mr. Edwards’ climb also turned out to be a near miss. Later on the morning of May 23, while Puyallup slept, Mr. Edwards turned back from his summit attempt after he experienced potentially serious vision problems due to the extreme altitude.

Two other climbers in the team, Canadians Jamie Clarke and Alan Hobson, reached the summit. The three climbers reportedly descended safely.

Overall, Principal Warr said last Thursday, teachers had achieved a balance in keeping students interested in the climb, while still going on with the normal curriculum.

Mr. Edwards, 38, likely would have appreciated that feat, because he and the other climbers on the team--called the Colliers Lotus Notes Mount Everest ’97 Expedition--have had an educational mission, in addition to their strong personal motivations to be there.

They have been the main subjects for the Adventure Everest Online educational program, which has used the risky trek up the world’s tallest mountain to fuel students’ explorations in science, mathematics, language arts, and social studies.

Teachers at more than 500 schools in Canada and the United States paid a fee to subscribe to the Everest program and use the curriculum materials and events presented on its World Wide Web site, said Marty Edwards, the director of multimedia development at VR Didatch, the software company in Burnaby, British Columbia, that organized the program

The Web address is http://www.vrsystems.com/everest.

One on-line guest at the Web site who answered students’ questions was Sir Edmund Hillary, who in 1953 preceded Mr. Edwards up the southern approach to be Mount Everest’s first conqueror.

The idea of combining exciting real adventures with educational content and serving it to students on a Web site has taken off in the past few years. Adventurers are using satellite and Internet technologies to communicate with students while crossing continents on bicycles and oceans on sailboats.

But the Mount Everest expedition may be the most dangerous to be used in this way.

During last year’s tragic Mount Everest climbing season, eight climbers died on a single day, and a climber who was communicating with schoolchildren via the Web nearly perished.

But Paul Goebel, a Stahl Junior High science teacher who is taking over Mr. Edwards’ class in the climber’s absence, said: “The whole time through we’ve talked about how safe Mr. Edwards is. [The students] know him and know he is a safe person, too.”

To keep the focus on education, organizers were cautious about reporting more than basic accounts of the accidents and deaths.

Camp Demolished

This year’s climbers on the south approach have been taunted by an unruly jet stream that has risen to hurricane force and demolished one of the camps that are essential staging points up the mountain.

Just last week, a helicopter sent to evacuate climbers from one team crashed on landing, but the pilot and co-pilot survived.

In a e-mail message to Mr. Goebel, Mr. Edwards said he’d seen two bodies of climbers from a 1982 expedition that had emerged from a glacier. Mr. Goebel mentioned that fact to his students in a discussion of glaciation.

In messages directly to students, Mr. Edwards, an expert climber who had narrowly missed reaching the Everest summit on two previous expeditions, emphasized the importance of safety but also the value in taking risks to achieve significant goals.

Last week, Mr. Edwards sent them a final message before he began his summit bid, telling them: “We’ll give it our best shot ... but whatever the outcome, know that our main goal is to make it home safely to family and friends. Enough said.”

Related Tags:

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

IT Infrastructure & Management One Solution to Maintaining 1-to-1 Devices? Pay Students to Repair Them
Hiring students to help with the repair process is one way school districts are ensuring the sustainability of their 1-to-1 programs.
4 min read
Sawyer Wendt, a student intern for the Altoona school district’s IT department, repairs a Chromebook.
Sawyer Wendt, who's been a student intern for the Altoona district's tech department since junior year, is now studying IT software development in college.
Courtesy of Jevin Stangel, IT technician for the Altoona school district
IT Infrastructure & Management Schools Get Relief on Chromebook Replacements. Google Extends Device Support to 10 Years
Schools have typically had to replace Chromebooks every three to five years.
4 min read
Photo of teacher working with student on laptop computer.
iStock / Getty Images Plus
IT Infrastructure & Management What We Know About District Tech Leaders, in Charts
Male chief technology officers in K-12 tend to come from technological backgrounds while most female tech leaders are former teachers.
1 min read
Illustration concept of leadership, using wooden cut-out figures and arrows.
Liz Yap/Education Week via Canva
IT Infrastructure & Management How Schools Can Avoid Wasting Money on Technology
A district leader shares ways to ensure ed-tech tools are worth the investment.
2 min read
Illustration of laptop with checklist on the screen
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty