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T H E V O I C E O F I N T E R I O R A L A S K A S I N C E 1 9 0 3

SOURDOUGH JACK:

“I’m interactive like that. Point something at me, and I’ll tell you a thing or two.”

The weather.Clouds should increase late today, and freezing rain is on the way.

High today .............. 16Low tonight .............. 7

WEATHER » A9

GOODMORNING

Classified » B7 | Comics » B6 | Dear Abby » B5 | Nation » A9 | Markets » A8 | Obituaries » A7 | Opinion » A6 | Weather » A9INSIDE

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The state is expecting nearly $2 billion less in oil and gas production taxes this year. » A3Inside Today

A TOUGH DAY ON THE ICEWest Valley icers dominate Lathrop.

SPORTSPage B1

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Aurora forecast.Auroral activity will be low. Weather permit-ting, low displays will be visible overhead from Barrow to Fairbanks.

This information is provid-ed by aurora forecasters at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. For more infor-mation about the aurora, visit http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast

ANOTHER HONOR IN THE BAGNanooks spikers’ Harthun named to West Region Team.

SPORTSPage B1

Interactive school mural uses apps to reveal information to studentsBy Weston MorrowWMORROW@NEWSMINER.COM

Watershed Charter School is not an average school. The school describes its philosophy as a com-bination of “stimulating classroom science lessons with outdoor explo-rations and studies with direct con-nection to our community.”

That environmental theme permeates the halls and rooms throughout the school. Until recent-ly, however, one spot — the school’s library — was a little left out.

For quite a while the library seemed a claustrophobic wasteland of drab design filled sparingly with hand-me-down books, teachers said.

“The library really did not look too friendly,” said Moira O’Malley, a teacher at Watershed.

That all changed this school year, though, when the room was trans-formed into an Alaska wilderness, containing boreal forests, mountain vistas, endlessly stretching rivers and an abundance of wildlife. Of course, the room itself remains sim-ply a library, but O’Malley attribut-ed much of the room’s transforma-

tion to the completion of its new wall-length wilderness mural.

While the art did much to bright-en the room’s mood, it does more than just look pretty. The mural contains a secret hidden to the naked eye — information.

The piece is what the school calls an “interactive mural.” It uses an augmented reality app on smart-phones and tablets to give stu-dents information on the elements represented within the mural’s

landscape.For instance, a rabbit rests peace-

fully in the underbrush within the mural. When a person opens the augmented reality app and points a smartphone at the rabbit, a host of information pops up on the screen alongside the animal.

About a dozen other of the mural’s elements contain similar informa-tion waiting to be opened. A bush plane, a fox, a ground squirrel and a small river village have all been

imbued with accompanying infor-mation. To come up with the inter-active elements, the mural’s creators met with teachers and incorporated the school’s curriculum into the wall.

The mural was largely the cre-ation of local artist Klara Maisch, but helpers from the school’s teach-ers to its youngest kindergarten stu-dents contributed their own paint-ing to the project. Zach Meyers, who works with the OneTree program at the school, adapted the technology that allowed for the mural’s inter-active nature.

Woman charged with murder in son’s deathBy Sam FriedmanSFRIEDMAN@NEWSMINER.COM

A Fairbanks woman was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday

for allegedly killing her 18-month-old son this week.

Amberlynn A. Swanson, 24, took the body of her son, Julian Swan-son-Byrd, to Fairbanks Memori-

al Hospital late Sunday evening, according to an Alaska State Troop-ers news release.

Swanson gave troopers an account of finding her child outside her vehi-cle on Friday after she fell asleep. She said she found the passenger-side window of her vehicle had been rolled down, according to the news release. Swanson said her son died

Saturday but at the hospital it was “confirmed that (Swanson-Byrd) had been dead for some time,” troop-ers said.

An autopsy of the child conduct-ed Tuesday concluded he suffered a “blunt force trauma” injury and “the manner of his death is believed to be homicide,” the news release stated.

Swanson was booked at Fairbanks

Correctional Center Tuesday without incident. She is being held without bail. Her first court hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon but has been rescheduled to Thurs-day afternoon at 1:30 p.m.

Swanson had recently won prima-ry physical custody and sole legal

Autopsy results conflict with mother’s account of how 18-month-old died, troopers say

DEATH » A10

Art meets science

School librarian Amy Kulp reads to first-graders in front of the new library mural at Watershed Elementary School on Wednesday. The mural, painted by local artist Klara Maisch with help from students, has points of entry that work with a recognition app to inform and educate the students. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER

This fox is one of the mural’s points of entry that work with a recognition app to inform and educate the students. ERIC ENGMAN/

NEWS-MINER

The mural) fits the core values of Watershed. It’s connecting the natural world with students.”Artist Klara Maisch

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Man loses appeal over 2010 scuffle with rangersBy Tim MowryTMOWRY@NEWSMINER.COM

Jim Wilde lost another round in his fight with the National Park Service.

A federal district court judge on Monday dismissed an appeal by Wilde, the 73-year-old Central man who was wrestled to the ground and arrested at gunpoint by National Park Service rang-ers three years ago for failing to stop his boat for a safety

inspection on the Yukon River.Wilde cursed out two rang-

ers and refused to stop his boat for a safety inspection on Sept. 16, 2010. The rangers pursued him, with one of them drawing a pistol and then a shotgun to get Wilde to pull his boat over. When he did pull his boat over to the riverbank, a brief scuffle ensued, and the rangers wres-tled Wilde to the ground and arrested him. He spent four days in jail.

Wilde pleaded not guilty

and took the Park Service to court, but he was subsequently convicted of interfering with a government agent who was engaged in an official duty, violating a lawful order by a park ranger and operating an unregistered boat. A disorderly conduct charge was dismissed, and Wilde was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine.

Wilde appealed a federal judge’s decision by claiming

APPEAL » A10

Delta Air Lines to add summer route from Seattle to FairbanksBy Jeff RichardsonJRICHARDSON@NEWSMINER.

COM

Delta Air Lines plans to add a daily nonstop route between Seattle and Fair-banks in May, providing the latest entry in a growing number of summer flights to the Lower 48.

The daily Boeing 737-800 flight between Fair-banks and Seattle-Tacoma

International Airport will run from May 29 to Aug. 31. Delta spokesman Antho-ny Black said the airline will evaluate the performance of the new route before mak-ing a commitment beyond 2014.

“I think our goal is to look at the service and see how it does and go from there,” Black said.

ROUTE » A10

MURAL » A10