Carl Sandburg Middle School
Fairfax County Public Schools

"Explorers" Explore Exploration

On Wednesday, 24 January 2001, explorers from the Explorers Club Washington Group (ECWG) visited the Carl Sandburg Middle School Team 8 "Explorers" for a one-hour presentation entitled, "What is Exploration, and Why are We Compelled to Explore?" Special thanks to ECWG Event Coordinators Dr. Robert (Bob) Simpson and Capt. Al Raithel, USN (Retired), guest speakers Robert Hyman and Dr. Marshall Shepherd, and ECWG members Dr. Richard Randall, Donald Gerson, and William Littlewood--at CSMS, we sincerely appreciate your spirit of volunteerism and willingness to share your expertise and enthusiasm for exploration!

Students prepared for the assembly by "winterizing" their English classroom to create an environment perfect for reading a variety of exploration- and adventure-related literature--part of Ms. Crimmel's 8th grade English unit on "Survival Under Extreme Conditions in Nature" (Call of the Wild, To Build a Fire, Bearstone, and selected articles excerpted from The Greatest Adventures of All Time, a Time-Life special publication).

Editor's Note: In the face of overwhelming student interest and enthusiasm, Mr. Hyman generously volunteered to return to CSMS to present the "Secrets of Sambu," the story of Mr. Hyman's discovery of anthropological petroglyphs (man-made rock carvings) previously known only to the Embera Indians of the Darien Province of Panama.

(Storyboard reads left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Click on thumbnailed images for larger view.)
Sandburg Planetarium Director Walter Sanford calls the assembly to order and introduces distinguished members of the ECWG... Shown left-to-right: Donald Gerson (ECWG Videographer), Al Raithel (Keynote Speaker), Robert Hyman (Presenter), Richard Randall, and William Littlewood.
Following the formal presentation, Sandburg students visit informally with ECWG members (shown right: Al Raithel). A crowd of students gathers around an exhibit of some of the clothing and equipment used by ECWG members during actual expeditions.
Team 8 English teacher and avid outdoorswoman Ms. Crimmel (background left) watches a group of her fully-engaged students as explorer Robert Hyman explains the use of various items of clothing and equipment. Mr. Hyman displays a very large boot (size 13!) he wore during an expedition to Mount Everest: a double plastic mountaineering boot, consisting of one boot inside an insulated "over boot," with crampons attached for walking on steep ice or snow.

Mr. Hyman demonstrates how the crampon spikes...
...attach to the "over boot."

Long-time Sandburg Support Staff member Mr. Carl Fletcher displays one of Mr. Hyman's ice axes, formerly used by William Littlewood during his Antarctic expeditions.
Keynote speaker Al Raithel (left) and presenter Dr. Marshall Shepherd, Atmospheric Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (right) pose with a Team 8 "Explorer" (and future explorer?).

A student admires the wolverine fur fringe on the hood of Bill Littlewood's green anorak (a hooded shell windbreaker worn during the "Operation Deep Freeze" expeditions to Antarctica of the late 1950s) moments before...
...CSMS Principal Ms. Donna Pasteur (second from left) dons the latest in fashion from Antarctica! Alongside Ms. Pasteur: Richard Randall (far left); Bill Littlewood (third from left); and Donald Gerson (far right).
Photographs courtesy Ms. Judy Kramer, Sandburg MS Enrichment Specialist.
Thumbnail images prepared using photoweb v1.2 by Phil Wherry.
S2 | CSMS | Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness | www.wsanford.com