Korn Students Make Geography Connection With Mystery Skype

There are fewer and fewer boundaries to today's classroom — a reality that was on display earlier this month at Korn School where students in Mrs. Durkin's fourth grade class participated in the school's first ever Mystery Skype.

The interactive lesson tests students' geography knowledge by connecting schools from different parts of the country through Skype. The object is to identify where the other students are located.

"Are you in the 13 colonies?" a student asks Mrs. Durkin's class.

"Yes," the students respond.

As questions are answered, students called "Google Mapper" and "Inquirer" are tasked with narrowing down the location. 

"This is a small world and these kids need to know how to talk to one another," says Jenny Lussier, a librarian at both Korn and Brewster schools who uncovered the idea for Mystery Skype on Twitter and began working with Michelle Gohagon, District 13's technology integration specialist to test it at Korn.

"We work together and get [teachers] to try really cool things. It's a lot of fun," she says.

Back in the classroom, the clues eventually lead the students to Pennsylvania where they discover they've been talking to students at Shipley School in Byrn Mawr, a city just northwest of Philadelphia.

After sharing information about their schools and hometowns, the students have one more great idea. 

This spring both schools will be taking field trips — Korn to Plymouth, Mass, and Shipley to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia — and the students will reconnect when the trips are over to share photos and their impressions of the historical sites.

"This activity really pulls together many of the things the fourt graders have been studying this year, such as U.S. regions and states, as well as Connecticut history. It also allows students to practice 21st Century skills, such as creativity and collaboration and digital citizenship as students work with others they have never met before to share information," Lussier says.