The objective of Journey North is not only to analyze data, but also to collect and organize raw data for graphical presentation. The activities are intended to provide insights into the seasonal migrations of various animals, or seasonal appearance and disappearance of plants.
The structure compels the students to work with the internet. While students in most of the other projects can download the data bases from the net and analyze them with another software, Journey North students first have to create in “do-it-yourself” fashion a data base which makes sense. Information cannot be simply downloaded and printed out. As this editing is often quite laborious (more so than teachers may appreciate), the Online Orientation recommends in the chapter Choose your Focus that students confine themselves to investigating only 2 or 3 migrations in a given year.  The project puts heavy emphasis on exchanging data. To follow migration of some species across the United States, the students depend on other students sharing their observations via e-mail. This is why it is important that the largest possible number of kids from all regions of the U.S. take part in the project. The fact that the students are able to rediscover their own e-mail in the internet may motivate them to send an e-mail when they observe something.
The internet provides support for the teachers as well. In the forum Teacher Discussion, teachers may ask questions, or answer other teachers’ questions. In Teacher Tips, those who have already implemented the project  may offer tips and suggestions. One teacher has even reflected upon and shared her Student Assessment and Journey North.

On the Journey North Homepage, you will find a link “About Journey North” where the project is introduced:

Who: Students Across the North America.

What: Track Wildlife Migration and Spring's Journey North

When: Every Spring

...After Preparations in the Fall

Where: On the Internet

Funded by: Annenberg/CPB Math & Science Project

• Skills for Tracking Migrations and the Seasons
• The Mysteries of Migration
• Fall's Journey South

Skills for Tracking Migrations and the Seasons

• "Know" - what do you know or think you know about a topic?
• "Want to know" - what questions do you have?
• "Learned" - What have you learned?

• A kindergartner in Minnesota reported a sighting of 500 monarchs in Minnesota in February. The kindergarten teacher said her students were just learning to identify monarchs at the time.
• On April 9, a monarch was reported in New Jersey. Other monarchs reported at the time were in Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, and Missouri. The New Jersey report was sent by a naturalist who tags hundreds of monarchs each fall.
• A student in College Station, Texas, reported seeing his first monarch on May 20. Many monarchs were reported in Texas in March and April.
• A New York student was on vacation in Florida in April. She reported sighting the first monarch there.

• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Summary
• Acknowledgments
• Literature Cited

In the final unit (Ask the Expert: Connecting Students to Scientists), the students are shown how to obtain information from experts.

The Mysteries of Migration

Fall's Journey South

The third unit, “Phenology Data Exchange” (phenology being the study of seasonal timing of life cycle events), prompts students in partner schools to exchange typical data from their regions. Teachers may send an e-mail to Journey North in which they briefly describe their own school. These mails are made accessible, and other teachers may answer them, thus establishing inter-school cooperation. An intriguing task is to refrain from telling students where the partner schools are and to have them discern this from the data. That a real exchange of data may occur has been confirmed by the following experience reported by a teacher in New York:

Our "Phenology Data Exchange" was one of the highlights of the year for our second grade class. After signing in to exchange data, we contacted other second grade classes who had also signed up. After a while we had a little "network" of about 7 classes.
On the suggestion of Karin Sanders, we used a 20 questions sort of format to find the locations of the schools in our network, moving from N-E-S-W to "Is your state one of the 20 largest?" to "Does your state touch an ocean?" to the start of learning about latitude and longitude.
After several months , lots of list-making and chart making, lots of data analysis, and greatly increased interest in geography we were able to narrow down the questions and locate our "tulip-pals". We also then exchanged information on the development of our tulip gardens.
Some members of our network "disappeared" and didn't send information (only a couple.) Some teachers had more student involvement than others. Some signed on much later and had to be "caught up" on information. Some of us were more accurate than others. Some of us were better at using e-mail than others. None of that was a major problem! My class went on to read literature set in the states they had had tulip-pals in. They were especially interested in the emergence and blooming data from those states and had some idea of the places they were learning about. They sang the names of all the states. They worked with maps and they wrote. It was a wonderful central idea for much of the school year!
Changes: Perhaps you might mention in the invitation to sign on for the phenology exchange that some teachers might like to form small networks to share information from several areas or throughout a grade-level. It would help newcomers know that it was a possibility, as well as individual communications. ( On the other hand, we did that without the suggestion.)
At any rate, please do it again! I hope it was as successful on other grade levels as it was for us at second! The possibilities for older kids were very exciting!
Betsy Hawes
(http://www.learner.org/jnorth/orientation/tips/Tip0001.html)

The temperatures provided in the table permit students to identify regions rather precisely, as only small regions agree with these temperature conditions.

The penultimate unit (Seeing The Light: Recognizing the Sun's Role in Living Systems) explains the food chain and shows that the sun is the starting point of this chain.

In the last unit (Predicting the Arrival of Spring), students make predictions for 13 different places as to when spring will arrive, and then they hone these predictions through considering the Questions of the Week (listed below) and using the KWL-Strategy.

Question of the Week # 1: What things make plants grow?
Under what conditions do plants grow the most quickly? What are the variables the Journey North experiment is trying to control? Reread the planting instructions with this in mind. What variables might have an effect on growing rates and blooming dates? Now consider the sites: What do you know about each of the garden sites? In what ways are the sites the same? In what ways are they different? (i.e. More northern or southern location? Weather is typical/different from your own? Mountains or oceans are nearby, etc...)
Use the KWL process to give your students some structure as to where their inquiry may lead them. (For the KWL format refer to Lesson 4.1 of the Teachers Manual). After the "When" ("W") questions have been generated, you may choose to have students create a Web using those questions to demonstrate the categories that they can pursue through research. This initial KWL will help give an overall direction to the following series of questions.

Question of the Week # 2: When do tulips bloom in your home town?
Before investigating further into the unique characteristics of their selected sites, students should find out when tulips bloom where you live. This information can be used as a standard of comparison over the next weeks. Challenge students to come up with as many types of information sources as possible. As a class, come together and review the information the groups have collected. Is there a date everyone agrees upon? Each student group can use this information as they wish as they make their predictions this week and in coming weeks.

Question of the Week # 3: What is the climate of your site?
What is today's temperature at your site? Do you think the site is generally warmer or colder than your hometown? What is the average daily high temperature at your site in: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June? What is the average daily low temperature at your site in: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June? How much rain or snow does your site typically have? How might these variables affect plant growth?
Resources: Monthly climate information can be found in most almanacs, the National Geographic atlas, and on the WWW. Make these resources available to all the groups.
Link to map of Today's Temperature in North America.

Question of the Week # 4: How long is the growing season at your site?
Have students brainstorm about the definition of "growing season"--do not tell them! After a definition is agreed upon and verified with a dictionary or local resource, groups should try to determine the growing season for their garden. Have student groups contact or consult resources such as garden centers, county extension services, or the National Weather Service to find out the average killing frost dates for the area where their gardens are located. Using the frost dates have them figure the length of growing season.
Link to frost dates look-up tables on the WWW
TEACHERS: For your information, the "growing season" is defined as:
The number of days between the last "killing" frost in the spring and the first "killing frost" in the fall. Killing frost is an inexact term, due to the fact that different plants have varying tolerances for cold temperatures. Generally speaking, however, "killing frost" is defined as when temperatures drop below 32 degrees F for an extended period of time (usually several hours), such that it will kill vegetation.

Question of the Week # 5: In which Plant Hardiness Zone is your garden located?
Have student groups discuss:

• The definition of a "Plant Hardiness Zone". What might this mean?
• What bearing might the information gained in Question of the Week # 4 have on the definition "hardiness zones"?
• How do Plant Hardiness Zones seem to be related to (or not related to) latitude?
• What variables might cause the patterns shown in the Plant Hardiness Zones map?

Question of the Week # 6: Does this theory help you predict spring's arrival at your site?

"The seasons, like great tides, ebb and flow across the continents. Spring advances up the United States at the average rate of about 15 miles a day. It ascends mountainsides at the rate of about a hundred feet a day. It sweeps ahead like a flood of water, racing down the long valleys, creeping up hillsides in a rising tide." Edwin Way Teale North With the Spring (St. Martin's Press, 1951)

• Do you think Teale's theory can help you predict spring' arrival at your site?
• Do you want to base your predictions on this theory? If so, what new information might you like to know about your site?
• Are there any reasons why you might not want to rely on this theory?

• It is an average, it's for the U.S. only, not Canada or Europe.
• It hasn't been tested year after year.
• Spring doesn't only go "northward".
• There are many ways to define the "arrival of spring", some signs of spring might move at different rates than others, etc.

• In what ways has weather varied on your birthday over the years?
• Did you ever have to wear a jacket for Halloween?
• Do you always have a white Christmas?

Bald Eagle; Challenge Question #3: Wandering Around Washington?
Today's migration data are provided below. Plot each eagle's locations on your map, and see if you can answer this question:
Challenge Question #3

"Which eagle seems to be wandering around Washington? If you plot this eagle's movements since January 21 or 22, how many miles has it traveled? The students in what town might have seen it, if they looked overhead on Sunday, February 7?"

Today's Migration Data
Eagle #12
Eagle #18