Dates and Times:

Tuesday, December 16, 2008; 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET

Friday, December 19, 2008 * 12:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET

Target Grade Levels: Grades 5-6

Cost: Free!

Requirements for participation: Must be a MAGPI member and have H.323 (IP) Videoconferencing capabilities

Description:

This project is designed for 5 th and 6 th grade students studying USA geography. Through video conference technology, students are able to meet other students while learning about cities and states in the country. Prior to the video conference each classroom will create a presentation with clues about their ONE mystery state and city. The other classrooms, using maps, the Internet, textbooks, and other resources, will try to discover the mystery location presented by each participating classrooms.

This MAGPI program uses the curricular materials and format developed by Berrien County ISD.

Resources:

• The Teacher's Guide for the MAGPI Mystery Quest USA Project (includes instructions, tips, PA Standards)
• The Original Mystery Quest Project (Developed by Berrien County ISD)
• Student Handouts (in the Teacher's Guide)

Prepare Your Classroom Presentation

Do Right Away

1. Register for the project!
2. Choose one state to present. Six states total will be presented during each presentation. Email your state right away to Heather Weisse at hweisse@magpi.net so she can check for duplicates.

Creating the Presentation

Each classroom should plan a five to seven minute presentation. For more information on what it can include, visit the Media Tips page. Talk to your technology or distance learning coordinator to determine the possibilities available to you in your distance learning room. Your technology coordinator can help you gather the necessary equipment and will be helpful to you in preparing your presentation.

Your students' classroom presentation should answer a combination of mystery country and city questions found in the Teacher's Guide. In answering the questions you will help other classes figure out your location. Use the research web links to help you find the answers, as well as other print resources you have in your school.

When creating your presentation, please recognize the need to clearly communicate the clues. If you are making a creative presentation, please make sure to clearly indicate which clue is being given. You don't need to present the clues in order, however, please do the state clues together and the city clues together; as the worksheet is double sided. This will help the efficiency of taking notes. If your clues are not in order, please clearly indicate which clue is being addressed and which section. Give the other classes time to find the clue and write it down.

To clearly communicate clues, we highly recommend visual cues of the clues. This could be a PowerPoint presentation to accompany the clues; using the document camera to present the text of the clues; or using large signs that students hold up while presenting. Visual cues assist in getting the spelling correct, understanding when students mispronounce location names, and help those taking notes get accurate information. When using visual clues, be sure to leave them on the screen long enough to allow copying.

When working on your presentation, you may wish to divide the questions among the students in your classroom so that all students participate in the research and presentation preparation.

Most importantly – creativity is encouraged! There are a variety of presentation formats that work well in a videoconference environment. Some suggestions include: ‘news reports,’ songs, dramatics, performances, skits and more.

For tips on preparing your presentation, see the "Teacher's Guide!"

The Videoconference Event

Videoconference Agenda

Preparation for the Videoconference Event

Divide your students into five teams. Each team will be responsible for discovering one mystery location presented by the other classrooms. The students will have half an hour after the completion of all presentations to match the classrooms with their corresponding mystery locations, using books, atlases, the Internet, etc.

Go over the agenda with students so that they understand the process for the day. If possible, take along a poster of the agenda to post in your distance learning room to help students keep on track during the day. Files of the agenda with the different start times are available on the agenda page online.

Have students practice the presentation. Time the presentation to make sure it is 7 minutes or less. Emphasize speaking slowly, loudly and clearly. The biggest issue with this project is audio. Remind students that everyone else is listening carefully to their presentation to take notes. The goal is to have the other students clearly hear the clues and be able to record the information. Communicating the clues understandably is crucial! If students are reading clues, have them read from note cards instead of paper. Rustling paper during a video conference can make it impossible to hear the clue.

Make sure students understand the process for asking one question of each classroom. After the half hour is up each team will be allowed to ask each classroom one question. Each school should come up with a question for all the other classrooms. The questions should be 'eliminating' questions. In other words if the students believe the town or city is this or that, they pose a question that eliminates one. The questions should be "yes or no" questions only! In addition, do not ask, "Is your state Michigan?" as this type of question gives it away for the rest of the schools.

Revealing the Answer

Prepare a visual to reveal the answer to your presentation (city & state). If possible write down the name of the city and state to show on the document camera or with a big poster so that other schools can easily tell whether or not they got it correct. Be creative here if you want!

Materials to Bring

• Bring all materials needed for your presentation. Bring research notes in case another school has specific questions about your state.

• Copy the note taking form for each student in the class. (Suggestion: if you have each student takes notes on each presentation, if a team figures out a country quickly they can help another team.)

• Bring any print materials for students to use in their research such as:
• USA Maps
• Atlases
• Textbooks
• Almanacs
• World Book Encyclopedia
• Road atlases for USA
• Wall Maps
• Reference books from the library

If students have laptops, have them bookmark the Internet resources to be used during the research portion of the event (you might even have them make that the homepage for the day.

If desired, arrange for the use of computers/Internet connection during the half hour students use to guess the mystery location.

Video Releases

The event will be recorded by MAGPI for improvement of the project, as well as illustrations to post on the web for examples of videoconferencing programs. In addition, many schools participating in this event may want to tape the program they participate in. Because of this, please make sure the students who appear on camera have permission from their parents/guardian. (Some schools have a video/photograph release form built into their registration process.) It is the responsibility of the teacher and school(s) involved to ensure proper permissions have been granted.