GUILDERLAND — The kids at Lynnwood Elementary School know the state’s geography in their muscles and their brains.

As a school-wide project, they donned pedometers and walked till they sweated.
"It’s fun to see how many steps you go," said nine-year-old Andrew Sentz, a Lynnwood third-grader.
Another third-grader, eight-year-old Lexi Ochs, agreed. "You see how many steps it takes you to get from one place to another," she said.

One Lynnwood step was calculated at two feet. A huge map of New York State is posted in the hallway outside the gym door.

The map states that 5,280 feet equal a mile, and the course the Lynnwood kids collectively walked is plotted from Lynnwood to New York City — that’s 166 miles and took a day to complete — then from New York west to Niagara Falls — that’s 407 miles and took four days — then north to Lake Placid in the Adirondacks — that’s 428 miles and took a day — and then home to Lynnwood — another 140 miles.
"It was for the whole school," said physical education teacher Michael Schaffer who spearheaded the project with co-worker Don Favro.

Money to buy the pedometers was raised over many months, he said, including at the school’s Family Fun Night.
Being able to measure their treks made all the difference for the kids, Schaffer said. "They were sweating and loving it," he said. "It was monumental for them to see how far they walked....They were disappointed to be done."