Mystery from History

Telecommunications Project
Binford Elementary School
Bloomington, Indiana 47401

A Brief History:

Mystery from History is a project that was started by Lee Ehmanand Antoinette Kranning.
This project started about three years ago between Perry Central Elementary School and Indiana University computer endorsement students. This year we decided to do this same project in our class with the W210 computer endorsement class I teach at Indiana University School of Education.

Mystery History Lesson Plan
Read sample responses and clues
Read reflections from student journals
Conclusions

Mystery from History Lesson Plan

Objective	Through the integration of technology and social studies, children will be able to effectively use electronic e-mail, work cooperatively in teams, and develop good questioning skills by becoming inquisitive detectives.
Materials	Computer with Internet connection; reference CD-ROMS Journal Indiana University computer endorsement students E-mail account
Timeline	The children will be working on the Mystery from History project all semester (about twelve weeks). We will receive the messages from the mystery figure every Monday. The children will send out their questions every Wednesday.
Overview of Unit	Our students interacted with Indiana University computer endorsement students who personified themselves as famous historical figures. These figures were selected by the classroom teacher based on the content being studied in the 5th grade classroom. Participants used e-mail to exchange clues and questions. The goal for the 5th graders was to "crack the code" by asking questions based on the clues provided by the computer endorsement students (I have listed some example messages below).
Assessment	Each student maintained a journal of clues and responses throughout the twelve week period. I developed a rubric to assess the student's journals based on the following criteria: E-mail mystery clues included on each page A response is included on each page Thorough and meaningful response on each page Questions provided for the next mystery response A reflection of the project was included at the end of the journal The journals were graded on a scale from 1-5; 5 being the best.

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Sample Clues and Responses

Clue 1:

Subject: Lexington
> < >HELP!! I woke up this morning on a desert island and could not remember >who I am. I found this machine that I believe can send messages. If this >message does reach someone, I am hoping that they can help me remember who >I am. I can only remember that I spent much of my life on a wooden ship. >One of my *last* memories is being surrounded by *British* soliders, I >would really like some help in remembering who I am.
> Lost in Nowhere

Response 1:

Subject: Lexington
Dear Lost in Nowhere, Hello! We are sorry that you are lost. We will try as hard as possible to help you. To help you we would like to ask you these questions below! 1. Is this machine called a computer? 2. Are you a male? 3. Were you in the American Revolutionary War? From, Mike, Ben, Sarah, and Laura

Clue 2:

Subject: Re: Lexington
Hello! Thank you so much for writing back and trying to help me! I believe that what I'm writing to you from is a computer. I also am male and with lots of hard thinking I remembered that I was in the American Revolutionary war. I also remembered one other thing since I wrote to you last. I am of African and Native American ancestry. I hope to hear from you soon and thank you for all of your help!
From, Trying really hard to remember

Response 2:

Dear Mystery Person,
We really want to help you remember who you are. We are trying our hardest to figure out who you are. Here are some questions to help you. 1. Did you ever get shot? 2. Did you ever run away? 3. Were you in the Boston Massacre? From,
Lexington

Clue 3:

I am so happy that you are helping me to remember who I am. Your questions have really helped me to remember a lot about my life. I do remember being one of the first people to get shot, and now that you asked, I do remember something about the Boston Massacre. I think maybe that I was there. I don't remember running away from anything, but if I do I will let you know. Thanks so much for all your time in helping me to figure out who I am. Signed-
Can't quite remember.

Response 3:

Subject: Re: Lexington Dear Crispus Attucks, WE have found out who you are. Crispus Attucks was one of the first to get shot in the Boston Massacre. He was African American. And you spent most of your life on a ship. We found out that you wer Crispus Attucks from your clues, from one of our classmates, and a book about Crispus Attucks. We are looking forward to the next mystery. From, Ben, Laura, Sarah, and Mike

Clue 4:

Subject: Re: Lexington Mike, Sarah, laura, and Ben, thanks for finding out who I am now I just have to figure out how I'm going to get off this Island, Crispus Atticks. Hey, good job you guys, that was really a hard one to figure out. Let's see how you do with your next Mystery!!

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Reflections from Fifth Grade Student Journals

Reflection 1:

I thought that it was pretty good this time, but I would improve on getting better clues and have more messages. The things I thought were good was how our group worked together. One other thing I liked was how we sent cards back and forth. Overall, it was fun and only needs a few improvements.

Brad

Reflection 2:

Dear Mystery History students,

I really enjoy having you send messages to us through email. My favorite thing about Mystery from History is that you send us clues about people that we know about or are learning about in school. Something that you could improve on though is the fact that you don't always send messages through mail. And another thing, try to answer our questions better. I really love doing this so keep sending us messages.

Julie

Reflection 3:

Mystery History had lots of things that I liked and things in need of improvements. Some of the things that I liked about it was that it made you use a mix of mystery/problem solving and history skills and its just plain old fun. Some of the things that need improvement are that they could answer a few more of our questions. Also, they might want to research the person they are doing to get some of the less obvious facts. Lastly, give a few more clues to help us solve the mystery.

Daniel

Reflection 4:

I thought that this was an interesting and fun way to learn about people. I liked reading the clues and trying to figure out the person. I also liked writing messages to our people. However, there was one thing I disliked. I disliked how sometimes we didn't get enough clues in our messages.

Samantha

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Conclusion

Mystery from History is a great telecommunications project that any teacher can easily do. It is great to see how children work together in order to solve the mystery. They use many resources such as: social studies books, books about the topic they are studying, the internet, CD-ROMS, and one another. This is a fantastic way to integrate technology into a subject or topic that is rather boring to some students!

Feel free to email Wendy Tamborrino (wtamborr@mccsc.edu), Lee Ehman (ehman@indiana.edu) if you want to find out more information how to set this up within your own classroom:)

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Page prepared by Shannon Lewandowski and Wendy A. Tamborrino Last updated: 4/5/99 URL: http://www.mccsc.edu/~wtamborr/class/mystery.html Comments:

wtamborr@monon.mccsc.edu Binford Elementary School Monroe County Community School Corporation Bloomington, Indiana, 47401 1998