Photo By Lance Cpl. Taylor Smith | Malerie Gregrow, left, and Kouilee Ortiz, right, fifth grade students at Bitz...... read more read more
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Two fifth grade students from Bitz Elementary School on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune recorded a podcast highlighting military working dogs and their handlers March 9, 2020. Malerie Gregrow and Kouilee Ortiz created the podcast to submit to the National Public Radio (NPR) Student Podcast Challenge.
The challenge is open to teachers with students between 5th and 12th grade. Each podcast can be between three and 12 minutes long and winning submissions will be featured in segments on NPR’s Morning Edition or All Things Considered.
Jessica Buckley, a fifth grade technology teacher at Bitz Intermediate School, challenged her students for the second year in a row to create a podcast of their own to submit to the national challenge. Buckley currently has 35 groups of students participating in the challenge.
“I try to bring their learning to life; that’s one of the biggest reasons I chose this challenge,” said Buckley. “A lot of times, this is the first time kids get to do a podcast, it kind of takes what we are learning and applies it.”
The topic of military working dogs and their handlers was chosen because of Gregrow’s admiration of her mother, U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Sara Gregrow, a kennel master with the 2nd Law Enforcement Battalion, II Marine Expeditionary Force.
“My mom is really awesome; she’s a magician with training dogs. She trains dogs in the military,” said Gregrow. “She’s the reason I wanted to do this podcast on dogs. This is my first podcast, now that we’ve gotten started on it, I’m really excited.”
Officer Trent Tallman, a 10 year-veteran military dog handler with the Camp Lejeune Provost Marshal’s Office kennels, and his military working dog, Dude, were the subjects of the students’ interview.
During the three-and-a-half minute interview, the students learned that Dude, currently an explosive detection dog, was previously used as a specialized search dog. Dude is also trained in specialized off-leash training which means he can go in any direction, at the command of his handler, for long distances. These types of trained dogs typically work based off hand signals, but in the Marine Corps, they can also receive commands via radio receivers. Dude was reclassified to his current position in December 2019 due to operational needs.
“You can see military working dogs anywhere in the Marine Corps,” Tallman said. “They don’t have to be with a specific canine unit; the dogs can be augmented out to different units on base.”
The podcast challenge submissions are to be uploaded to Soundcloud by April 7, 2020. For more information and complete rules, visit https://www.npr.org.
| Date Taken: | 03.25.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 03.25.2020 14:35 |
| Story ID: | 365837 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE , NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 341 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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