FAIRBANKS — Virginia “Ginny” Hill Wood led a life of adventure beginning at a young age leading horseback trips in her native Washington state, bicycling through pre-war Europe in 1938, serving as a WASP pilot during World War II, building Camp Denali and leading wilderness treks.

But her most lasting legacy will be her role as a dedicated pioneer Alaska environmentalist.

Wood passed away in the early morning Friday at her home in the presence of some close friends. She was 95 years old and died of natural causes.

FAIRBANKS — School district superintendents across the Interior were queried on a variety of subjects from bandwidth availability to traditional teaching and parental involvement Wednesday on the first day of the 2012 Interior Education Summit hosted by the Tanana Chiefs Conference this week.

The open sharing was but one session of the two-day meeting with the theme “Save Schools, Save Communities.”

Held at Chief David Salmon Tribal Hall, the summit drew a couple hundred educators, elders, tribal leaders and students from across Alaska.

FAIRBANKS — Learning about the economics and health attributes of locally grown foods had some tasty benefits for students in a Future Foods class at Barnette Magnet School.

All eyes were on Chef Michael Roddey, as he chopped, pickled, sautéed, cored, diced, rolled and wrapped a variety of delectable dishes for students to taste test.

FAIRBANKS — During the first week of school in August 2010, students in an eighth grade physical science class at Randy Smith Middle School made a startling discovery. There were racist names on an Alaska topographic map.

Students were moving through various stations, set up by teacher Jayne Naze, outlining the different topics to be covered during the term when student Trent Johns noticed the derogatory place name, “Negrohead Creek,” near Minto, on a U.S. Geological Survey topographic map.