1. Mystery Hangouts (or Skype) provide an engaging way
for classrooms to introduce themselves to each other. The
concept is simple: Classrooms Hangouts call each other
and try to guess where the other classroom is located
either in the United States or in the world. On the day of
the call, students use their resources in trying to figure
where the other class is calling from via Google Hangout.
Project Goals:
• Students will use map skills to find the location of the mystery classroom
• Students will use communication and critical thinking skills to ask questions to help them find
the mystery location.
• Classes communicate with other classrooms via Skype or Google+ Hangouts.
• Students will learn to respect and appreciate the cultures and customs of others.
• Students will be able to see the differences and similarities between themselves and others around
the world.
Skype Etiquette Guidelines
1. Sit quietly and look at the screen so your audience can see that you are paying attention to
them – remember that they can see you the whole time.
2. Do not raise your hand unless it’s question/answer time. Let the speaker finish first.
3. Do not shout out – wait to be called on.
4. When speaking to the other class, look into the camera, not at yourself.
5. Speak a little louder than your normal voice.
6. Be polite
Don’t:
• Wear a shirt that represents or is a clue to your location.
• Ask vague questions such as weather related ones unless they are specific.
• Guess states too quickly.
• Not write down the questions and answers.
Do:
• Pay attention to the questions that the other team asks – often it gives away clues.
• Pay attention in general.
• Have a sign signaling thinking.
• Stay calm and don’t be rude to each other.
• Assign jobs and sticking to them.
• Have a student-led discussion after the call to discuss success/failures and figure out how
to improve.
Mystery Hangouts Mr. Ambrosio 2014
2. Preparation:
A. We want to know facts about our own state so that we would be ready for any question.
We will research the following questions today in class: climate, region, neighboring states,
time zone, capital, famous landmarks, geographical location. All of this will give us a better
grip of what we might be asked.
B. We will brainstorm questions to possibly ask.
C. Assign jobs:
i. Greeters – Say hello to the class and some cool facts about the class – without giving away
the location.
ii. Inquirers – these kids ask the questions and are the voice of the classroom. They can also be
the ones that answer the questions.
iii. Answerers – if you have a lot of kids it is nice to have designated question answerers – they
should know their state facts pretty well.
iv. Think tanks – I had students sit in a group and figure out the clues based on the information
they knew.
v. Question keepers – these students typed all of the questions and answers for us to review later.
vi. Google mappers – two students were on Google maps studying the terrain and piecing
together clues.
vii. Atlas mapper – two students used atlases and our pull down map to also piece together clues.
viii. Clue keepers – worked closely with answerers and inquirers to help guide them in
their questioning.
ix. Runners – Students that runs from group to group relaying information.
x. Photographer – takes pictures during the call
xi. 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.
xii. Problem solver – this student helped students with any issues they may encounter during
the call.
xiii. Closers – End the call in a nice manner after the game has been completed.
3. Possible Questions:
For the USA
• Are you in North America?
• Are you in the United States?
• Are you east of the Mississippi?
Depending on the answer to that, you can go in different directions:
If east of Mississippi:
• Are you one of the original 13 colonies?
• Do you border a Great Lake?
• Do you border an ocean?
• Do the Appalachians run through your state?
• Do you border Canada?
• Are you Northeast/Midwest/Southeast region?
• Do you border the Gulf of Mexico?
If west of the Mississippi:
• Are you in the West/Southwest region?
• Do you border the Pacific?
• Do the Rocky Mountains run through your state?
• Do you border Canada?
• Is your state landlocked?
Other Questions:
Does your country border another country?
Are there mountains in your country?
Does your country/state have a coastline?
Does your country/state he border______?
Is your country/state/province north/south/east/west of?
Is your city in the north/south/east/west of your country/state/province?
Is your city the capital of your country/state/province?
Possible Clues:
• The time is…
• The season is…
• We are north/south/east/west of…
• The beginning letter is…
4. Teacher Mystery Skype Story
Today we had a chance to Mystery Skype! The students had no idea what class we were skyping with. Their goal was to cooperate as a team to try to figure out the location of that class.
There were a few rules to the Mystery Skype. Students had to ask closed questions (yes or no answers). Classes went back and forth asking questions to help them find the location. If a class asked a question that received a yes answer, they got to ask a follow up question.
In order to be as efficient as we possibly could, students chose different roles for the afternoon. Each of these jobs had their own importance in the attempt to solve our mystery. We started with our inquirers. The inquirers were in charge of asking relevant, closed questions that would help others to narrow down where the other class could be found. The inquirers tried to use their knowledge of geography to hone in on the other classes location. They asked questions such as “are you east of the Mississippi River?” The response was “no” which helped us to remove quite a few states!
We also had two question keepers. The role of these two students was to work at the laptops. They typed in each question as it was asked as well as the response. This allowed for us to review the information that had already been shared.
Once our inquirers got answers to their questions, we had three Google Mappers who used online maps to search based upon the clues. They were able to use the computers to zoom in on different regions, states and cities. They could share information they found to help create new question.
Our runner was quite the multi-tasker. She was in charge of solving any problems that other students encountered. She also took information and questions from the other students and shared it with our inquirers. She was called the runner for good reason!
Our last two jobs were our logical reasoners and clue keepers. Our logical reasoners were in charge of using given information to try to remove possible states. They used a puzzle of the United States to pull away states that we knew it could not be. While they worked on this, our clue keepers used maps to mark down any relevant information. They could cross out, circle, or dot areas to help us figure out the location of the mystery class.
So many great questions were asked on each side. The other class was able to narrow down that we lived in Massachusetts. We were able to figure out that they lived in California. We started running out of time though so we had to each give one large clue that would help the other class determine the location. We shared that we were right next door to Plymouth, which is where the Pilgrims landed when they first arrived in North America. After taking a closer look at the map, they were able to determine that we lived in Plympton! They then shared the hint that where they lived had the largest population in their state. Our Google Mappers switched over to Google Search to find their information. We decided that they lived in Los Angeles, California.
