We have been practicing and preparing for our first Mystery Skype call! Finally the day is here and we will have our call this afternoon. We think we are all set.
We will use Skype to connect with a class somewhere else in the world. We will have to ask them yes or no questions to figure out where they are. This ties perfectly in with our recent explorations of Manitoba and Canada. We have been receiving postcards from people we know around Canada giving us information about their communities. The community we will connect with today is one of them!
We will use paper maps that are laminated so we can write on them as we narrow down our guess. We will also have a Google map up on our projector that we can move and zoom in on as we narrow it down. We have practiced starting with general questions and then getting more specific as we hone in on a region. The questions have to be yes or no questions. Some questions we might ask are:
"Are you in the north or south part of Canada?"
"Are you in the east or west part of Canada?"
"Are you in the province/territory ...?"
"Are you in the north or south part of the province?"
"Are you in the east or west part of the province?"
"Are you close to water?"
"Is your home urban?"
We are super excited to connect with another class this way!
Update:
The call was a huge success! We asked really smart questions and narrowed it down quickly, just like we practiced. Some kids sat at the paper maps, some took photos, some asked questions, some wrote down the answers and some focused on the Google map. Everyone was totally engaged. We will totally do this again!
Seeing and hearing the students run the call, ask smart questions and be involved in their own way was so exciting for me. I love it when all the little parts of an inquiry or project come together and the kids have a really neat way to show me what they know. They applied what they have worked through this year in so many ways. Huge win!
