Seventh-Graders Explore
Technology of Lewis & Clark at MSU Billings
College of Technology
Nearly 800
students to take part in “Back to the Future
with Lewis & Clark: Technology Then & Now” event
next week
MSU BILLINGS NEWS
SERVICE – Even though the full exploration
of events surrounding the bicentennial of the
Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery culminated in
2006, educational exploration continues through
Montana State University Billings.
Next week (Jan. 7-12) the
MSU Billings College of Technology will turn
into a modern day camp of exploration for
hundreds of seventh-graders in the Yellowstone
River valley. “Back to the Future with Lewis &
Clark: Technology Then & Now” features a week of
interactive experiences, showcasing the
technologies used by Lewis and Clark and his men
during their Voyage of Discovery more than 200
years ago along with comparisons to current
technologies
Events start at 9 a.m. each
day and features displays, an encampment and
live buffalo.
John Pulasky, a Billings
meteorologist, is helping the MSU Billings COT
coordinate the event. He said he expects about
800 seventh-graders from Laurel to Melstone and
from Billings to Forsyth and points in between.
According to Pulasky, a group
of exhibits and demonstrations will be presented
on the technologies that members of the Lewis
and Clark expedition used to meet the challenges
of their historic endeavor. This will be
combined with exhibits and demonstrations of
what current technologies would be used, today,
to accomplish the same jobs.
This marks the third year of
the program. It was part of the Lewis and Clark
Bicentennial “signature event” held in
Yellowstone County in the summer of 2006 and was
continued as a legacy of that historic event,
Pulasky said.
“We had such good success
with it the first year that we decided to keep
it,” he said.
He noted that he believes
the “Back to the Future with Lewis & Clark”
event is one of the few signature events from
the nation’s bicentennial celebration that
continues today.
“We’re pretty proud of it,”
he said.
During their weeklong
experience, students will experience a variety
of exhibits and learning stations designed to
give them a comparison of “then and now”
technologies experienced by members of the Lewis
and Clark Corps of Discovery.
The exhibits and
demonstrations will include topics on weather
and climate; medical technology and treatment of
diseases/injuries; mapping and surveying;
mechanical/blacksmithing; and flora and fauna.
For more information on the
events, contact the MSU Billings College of
Technology at 247-3000.
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