DISCOVERING ORION'S BELT  Jibrie is a short, street-smart 15-year-old sophomore from Dorchester, Mass. For all of her toughness, she possesses a quick sense of humor, which is obvious from her infectious laugh as well as the oversized ogre-feet slippers she wears around the Highland Center.

Recounting her first evening’s favorite moments, Jibrie says, “It was when we did the star-gazing. It was so beautiful. We got to see Orion’s belt, the Big Dipper, and the North Star.” Instructors use the night sky to connect stars to constellations and to explain why stars twinkle and seem brighter here.

Whether it’s astronomy or geology, A Mountain Class­room offers schools an opportunity to teach the natural sci­ences in a natural setting. Hopkinton (N.H.) Middle School has participated in A Mountain Classroom programs at AMC’s Cardigan Lodge for the last eight years as a way to look at the changing landscape over time. Bob Woolner, a seventh-grade geography teacher, says the area “offers us a lot to look at—from seeing prehistoric volcanic uplift to more recent glacial evidence. We can also teach kids about how land use in New Hampshire has changed from its original forested state to farm­lands, and then back to its forested state.”

THEIR OWN PRIVATE EVEREST  When Jibrie got her first look at Mount Willard from the Highland Center, she was worried she wouldn’t be able to climb it. She confides, “I thought it was going to be hard. Very, very hard.”

Many schools build a longer hike—such as a climb up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail on Mount Washington, or in the case of Newton North, a trek to the top of Mount Willard— into their A Mountain Classroom program. In addition to providing opportunities to learn concepts such as forest zonation, hiking builds valuable outdoor skills, like map reading. For many stu­dents, it also provides a life-altering accomplishment.

“With the White Mountains surrounding us, there are ‘wow-ies’ all over the place here,” says Andrea Muller, AMC’s North Country youth education director. “And, because we hike in the White Mountain National Forest, kids make the link that this is something they can come here and do on their own, with their families or friends.”

A Mountain Classroom instructors are masters at getting kids to the summit. Frequent rest breaks, complete with rid­dles and other distractions, are the rule of the day. Food—often chocolate, strategically offered just when kids are about out of fuel—usually provides the final jolt they need to scramble up the last half-mile.

In team spirit, the whole group often pitches in to help in­dividual students who struggle to make it to the top—kids like Jibrie. At one point her classmates lined up like a train pushing her uphill. “I called my mom after reaching the summit,” Jibrie says, “I was like, ‘I made it!’”

Teachers often talk about students counting their A Mountain Classroom hike as a highlight of their school experi­ence. “I had a student who was practically in tears of joy after a long bushwhack hike,” says Jerry Burnell, principal of Marsh­wood Great Works Middle School in South Berwick, Maine. Like many of her peers, this particular student was worried she wouldn’t make it. “But she did, and afterwards she said, ‘Mr. B., everyone was so great. They all helped me. We all did it together.’”

“A lot of programs offer kids experiences like climbing walls or ropes courses,” Muller says. “Our mountain climbing experience offers similar challenges and risk-taking opportuni­ties, but is real—it’s not contrived.”

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