Ms. White’s 4th grade class at Jackson Davis participated in a Mystery Skype today. In the weeks before the actual Skype, they practiced with Google Earth, Google Maps, atlases, and large paper maps. They also brainstormed what types of questions would be best to ask to narrow down the options and figure out where their school was located. On the day of the Skype, students worked in teams to try to find the correct location. There were researchers who researched based on the answers the other team provided and wrote down questions to potentially ask to the other team, a group who determined which questions would be asked, a runner to collect the questions and take them to the students standing in front of the video camera, and students working on a variety of maps to eliminate the locations that it could not be. The students knew there role and executed their jobs really well.



Here is the list of questions that were asked by Ms. White’s students during the Skype session.

Our students were successful in locating their state, town, and school. We were skyping with a 3rd grade class from Hilliard, Ohio, which is a suburb of Columbus Ohio. At the end of the Mystery Skype, we shared facts about our locations. The Hilliard students shared with us that they currently have about 3 inches of snow on the ground and that it was still falling. We shared with them that if we had 3 inches of snow on the ground, we would not be in school. Both sides had a good laugh! This was such a great experience and a wonderful way to practice with asking quality questions and researching using maps. A special thanks to Mrs. Lingerfelt, Ms. White, and Ms. Whitlow for facilitating this activity.