For our first Mystery Skype this year we connected with Ms Richman’s 7th Graders in Signal Knob Middle School, Virginia, USA.
Mystery Skype is an educational game played between two schools anywhere in the world, over Skype. The aim of the game is to locate the school you have connected with by asking only yes/no questions. Children use maps, both digital and paper and plenty of deductive reasoning to figure out where the other school is. When the game is over the children can then spend some time chatting with their new friends, learning about their school, hobbies, culture etc. It’s an amazing learning resource and one that the children really enjoy.
The children took turns in the hot seat, answering and asking questions, while our team of mappers tried to narrow down the location of the other school. Every child in the class has a role to play.
We were able to identify their American accents immediately, our accent proved a little difficult to pinpoint!
When they realised we were in Europe, they began by asking us if we were in the UK, they then asked us if we were in Scandinavia.
We gradually zeroed in on their location.
Well done Noah!
Strasburg has a population of approximately 4,000 people in Shenandoah County, Virginia, just west of America’s capital, Washington DC. It looks beautiful!
When they discovered we were in Ireland, they found us very quickly!
We then spent some time discussing our two schools and our hobbies. It was such an eye opener to see the differences, but even more so the similarities.
They had never heard of our favourite sport, Gaelic Football (we didn’t get a chance to tell them about hurling!). They play a huge range of sports too, their favourite seems to be American Football, but they also mentioned basketball, volleyball, soccer and more.
They also told us that they love Chipotle. (We had to Google that one!)
We connected with them on Twitter
We can’t wait for our next Mystery Skype!
Craggagh NS 