Mystery Skype in the Classroom!

Fifth and Sixth grade classes are testing out their problem solving skills with Mystery Skype! Students are collaborating with other classrooms all over the country and even the world while using 21st century skills. What is better than that??

What is Mystery Skype?

Mystery Skype is a problem solving activity where students must ask Yes or No questions that will help them to identify the location of the classroom they are Skyping. As students ask questions, they refine their questions to narrow down the geographical possibilities and get closer to the other classes location.

Here are just a few reasons to Mystery Skype:

• Creating a global community of learners
• Critical thinking
• Geography skills
• Practicing listening and speaking skills
• Authentic purpose for research
• Collaboration
• Communication
• Challenge-based learning

Mystery Skype in Hilton

At Quest, Dave Moore Mystery Skyped with a class from Winnipeg, Canada! He broke his students up into groups including researchers, questioners, picture takers, greeters, answer recorders, and google document managers. The students all worked collaboratively by completing their job and contributing to the task. Mr. Moore's students were acting as great teammates and quickly understood why it was important that everyone do their job. The results of this Mystery Skype was an engaging class conversation on how to work collaboratively with peers, why it is important for everyone to do their part, and also the fun facts they learned about in regarding what life was like for a 6th grader in Winnipeg! The students in both classes had a great time and did not even realize they were practicing 21st century skills.


Today, Ms. Sica and Mrs. Tyler, Mr. VanEpps and Mrs. Humphreys got their feet wet with Mystery Skype between Village and Northwood! Students practiced their map skills, problem solving, and deductive reasoning to pin point the location of their Mystery Skype classroom! Ms. Sica rocked it out with an amazing mash up of 1:1 iPads and laptops utilizing the use of Google Forms for logging questions and updating a shared spreadsheet to record the questions asked, each class's answers, and refining their search field. Mrs. Tylers homeroom and Mr. VanEpps and Ms. Humphreys homeroom worked collaboratively between the two classes to determine the location of their Mystery Skype Classroom. They utilized a shared Google Doc for documenting the questions and responses and narrowing down their guesses. Mr. VanEpps was super techy and used Mirroring 360 with his iPad to have the two rooms join the Mystery Skyping. How Great!

Here are some great photos of the Mystery Skyping Magic!

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If you are interested in setting up a #MysterySkype with your class reach out to your building's Instructional Tech support or fill out an Instructional Technology Support Request.