Mystery Skype
Mystery Skype is an education game, invented by teachers, played by two classrooms on Skype. The aim of the game is to guess the location of the other classroom by asking each other questions. Here is an example of questions the students can ask back and forth to their mystery Skype classroom to figure out their location.
Here is some great information I found on how to get started with your first Mystery Skype! Thanks to
- Sign up – there are many places to sign up and some are even grade level based. I signed up a couple of places but also tweeted it out; the response was immediate as a lot of people are doing this. If you would like to sign up:
- Decide on a date and time – don’t forget to consider in timezones.
- Prepare the kids
- We wanted to know facts about our own state so that we would be ready for any question. We therefore researched the following questions: climate, region, neighboring states, time zone, capital, famous landmarks, geographical location. All of this gave the students a better grip of what they might be asked.
- We also brainstormed questions to possibly ask. We like the concept of the questions having to have yes or no answers as it makes the game a little harder and has the students work on their questioning skills. Questions we came up with included whether they were in the United States, whether they were east of the Mississippi, Whether they were West of the Rocky Mountains, If they were in a specific region, whether they border other countries, whether they are landlocked etc.
- Give jobs. I think it is most fun when the kids all have jobs, so this was a list of our jobs:
- Greeters – Say hello to the class and some cool facts about the class – without giving away the location.
- Inquirers – these kids ask the questions and are the voice of the classroom. They can also be the ones that answer the questions.
- Answerers – if you have a lot of kids it is nice to have designated question answerers – they should know their state facts pretty well.
- Think tanks – I had students sit ina group and figure out the clues based on the information they knew. Our $2 whiteboards came in handy for this.
- Question keepers – these students typed all of the questions and answers for us to review later.
- Google mappers – two students were on Google maps studying the terrain and piecing together clues.
- Atlas mapper – two students used atlases and our pull down map to also piece together clues.
- Clue keepers – worked closely with answerers and inquirers to help guide them in their questioning.
- Runners – Students that runs from group to group relaying information.
- Photographer – takes pictures during the call
- Clue Markers – These students worked with puzzles of the United States and maps to remove any states that didn’t fit into the clues given.
- Problem solver – this student helped students with any issues they may encounter during the call.
- Closers – End the call in a nice manner after guesses have been given.
There are many benefits to a Mystery Skype that include:
- Creates a global community of learners
- Critical Thinking
- Geography skills
- Listening and Speaking skills
- Student-Led
- Using Resources to find information
- Authentic purpose for research
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Challenge-Based Learning
- Creates partners for future projects
- Gets teachers to collaborate globally
Get started today!
No comments:
Post a Comment