How do trees breathe? How do you pan for gold? How does water travel to the ocean? How are rocks made? How do you figure out which way is north? These questions and countless others are asked every year during Outdoor Week in Anchorage.

For 20 plus years, MMS volunteers have braved the quirky Alaska weather to take part in this hands-on environmental education program designed for sixth grade students. The annual event is held the week before school ends and gives the kids a chance to stretch their legs, enjoy the outdoors, and receive hands-on experience in such diverse topics as gold panning, biology, and firefighting.

^{On the left, kids learn how to tie a fly.  MMS staffer Paul Lowry, right, lectures about the geology of Anchorage.  During the day-long adventure, students learn about the environment and things you can do outdoors including fly-tying, gold panning, and how water shapes our world.}

Outdoor Week is an office-wide project drawing participants from all disciplines in the Alaska Region. MMS staff guides students through the mysteries of geology. Using rock samples from all over the world, peach halves, and a baking soda volcano, students learn to recognize different types of rocks and their origins, plate tectonics and volcanoes, geologic time, water aquifers, and the geology of the Anchorage Bowl.