Tag Archives: MysteryQuests

MysteryQuest Registration Open

Registration is open for the MysteryQuests (world and USA) that I’m running this year.

You can read about past MysteryQuest reflections on my blog too.

These fill up fast, so don’t delay if you’re interested!

MysteryQuest as VC PD

Today I had an “aha” moment in our 123 VC: Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with Videoconferencing week long workshop. We did MysteryQuest Beaches this morning. And here I will quote reflection comments from two principals in my group.

Mystery Quest is a lot of fun. This would be a good ‘ice breaker’ event to use with staff new to vc. It could be done between buildings in a district or between RUS grant buildings in Berrien ISD. It teaches so many things to staff and is so interactive (plus a lot of fun!). There are so many ideas that you could jump off of this from to anywhere!

This was a fun day. There was not a lot that I could have my classrooms use because we are a k-2 building. I did think that I could use aspects of mystery quest as a professional development activity. This was also a day where a lot of planning took place between myself, another principal, and Janine for the next year. That is a great start for me.

It never occurred to me to use MysteryQuest Beaches as a PD for anything more than as PD to learn about MysteryQuests for teachers who plan to participate in a MQ. But both of these principals see this as a good intro to VC for teachers, even the K-2 principal who doesn’t see the MQ format working for K-2 (and I basically agree). This is really a new idea to me. I told them I was worried about the teachers being overwhelmed by it, but they thought it would really get them excited about videoconferencing and highly engaged in the process. Then in debebriefing you really can use this format with just about anything.

It’s likely that we’ll actually do this sometime during the school year. I’ll definitely write about how it goes…

Michigan Jeopardy & Riddles

This morning I’m facilitating a Where in Michigan session. One of the classes presented Michigan Jeopardy. We could hear them clearly, it was a fun game show, and they followed each clue with an easy to read PowerPoint slide. They even waited a bit while the slide was up to give the classes time to write it down!

Here’s another fun presentation that included rhymes & riddles for each clue:

Another fun day of guessing locations! These are great projects. You can find more information on facilitating your own similar program here.

More Notes on Posters

Posters in MysteryQuest continue to be a challenge. Here are some more examples that worked today for MysteryQuest USA. Notice how the most important information is the largest on the poster (as opposed to the title or subject of the poster).

Even though the camera isn't zoomed completely in on the poster, you can still read it.

Here's a poster that clearly didn't work. But notice how the poster is on an easel. This helps keep the poster still so the camera can focus and so a camera preset can be set for the posters.
 

Another MysteryQuest International

Today we have another MysteryQuest International session. The class from Canada had a very creative presentation. They presented from a tour bus including driver, running commentary on the site, and Q&A about the country. Creative presentations are harder to take notes on, but they are much more fun to listen to!

In yesterday's session the classes guessed the answers too quickly. But today we had a bit harder clues and another presentation was added, so the students had to work harder on the answers.

Afterwards we took time again for the classes to ask each other questions. Of course they really enjoy this interaction getting to know students in another country. 

Since we started so early in the morning, the class in Canada had morning ceremonies halfway through the question and answer part. During the Canadian national anthem, the students in Pakistan also stood out of respect. It was a moving moment. As the head teacher in Pakistan mentioned, the classes start their day in a very similar manner. How far apart we are, yet how similar we are. What a wonderful feeling of connectedness!

My Favorite Clue

This afternoon we have 6 classes from around the US participating in MysteryQuest USA. This program is very popular and usually fills up within a day or two of setting dates. It is always a delight to have a class from Alaska participating. And so I’m sharing here my favorite clue from their presentation! This tells you how remote this school is!

The best method to reach our city is by helicopter…

We also had a class from St. Joseph, MI put their clues online in a wiki in addition to presenting online. This made it easy for other classes to access the clues if they weren’t able to get them.

Finally, we had a great time asking questions of the class in Alaska. They had 5 students and live on an island with 140 people. One class asked their favorite food – and the answers included blubber! A great experience for students to see how people live in other areas of the US!

MysteryQuest International

Today we have a very special event, a MysteryQuest International session with 3 countries represented (Canada, the US and Pakistan). I was a bit concerned about the various accents represented in the session, but with PowerPoints and visual clues and time to repeat the clues, everyone was able to get the clues written down.

We had a nice variety in the presentations, with a news show, a National Geographic show, and clues presented in amonst many beautiful pictures.


After asking clarifying questions, we realized that everyone had probably guessed the right answer. So we didn’t give the classes time to reconsider their answers as we usually do. Then one of the classes had opening ceremonies with the national anthem and school announcements, so we listened to their opening ceremonies. It was nice to have time in the schedule for the little interruption.

The classes were creative with their clarifying questions as well. Some questions were: “Is there a TV series named after your city?”, “Does your city have a hockey team?” (you can guess which country asked that question!).

This is the first time in all of the MysteryQuest sessions I’ve run that everyone got the right answer right away. I think it was partly because the classes chose large cities in their countries to present, and there were less classes participating so many heads found the answer quicker.

After finishing the usual MQ agenda, we took an extra 30 min. or so to ask each other questions. The conversation covered a broad range of topics such as weather, time, textbooks, teaching methods, lenth of school day/year, languages, snow, sports, especially hockey and cricket. We had a friendly rivalry interchange between the Toronto Maple Leaf fans and the Red Wings fans. The sports teacher in Pakistan also explained the game of cricket. Our Michigan students were concerned about the after effects of the earthquake and wanted to know how the students in Pakistan were affected by it.

This was a very special MysteryQuest event and it was a wonderful experience. I’m sure we’ll be doing it again. If you are outside the US reading this and interested in participating in the future, please email me! jlim@remc11.k12.mi.us

Morphing a MysteryQuest

I’m delighted to see my VC buddy Joan Roehre morphing the MysteryQuest idea into the Wisconsin History Mystery for 4th grade. Way to go Joan! I see this format as a great instructional strategy that can be morphed into all kinds of great projects for students.

When are YOU going to run a MysteryQuest for your state??? I’ve even posted a facilitation guide to get you started! If you do, please put your materials up online so the rest of us can learn from your great ideas!

A wireless "document camera"

Today in a MysteryQuest presentation, I saw the most creative “document camera” I’ve seen yet! A class from Kenosha Wisconsin shared their clues in a “PowerPoint like” presentation. I suspect it wasn’t PowerPoint since it was on a Mac. And they had set a camera preset on their laptop screen. Amazingly, it came through very clear (as shown).

Wireless document camera! 🙂 Who would have thought of that?!

Ok, I know, you can’t present documents on it, but it worked great for their MysteryQuest presentation!

On another note, this was the last MysteryQuest World session for this year. Soon I’ll have dates online for the April MysteryQuest USA (5th grade) events.