Sample+Agenda

Agenda
The goal of the Minnesota History Mystery Class is for classrooms to connect via videoconferencing and present what they have learned about their topic to another class in a different location. The fun part is, then the other class has to try and guess what the first class had for their topic in terms of who (historical figure) or what (historical event or invention) or where (historical location).

The following is a recommended agenda. It is important to be observant of the time so the activity can be completed.

Introductions and Instructions (5 Minutes)
Each site will have one or two minutes to introduce their school. Introductions should be creative and should include: your school’s name, where you are located, class information and an interesting fact about your school or community.

Classroom Presentations (30 Minutes)
Each class will have 10 minutes to present their mystery clues. Please see information about presentations on the Presentation Tips and Recommendations page. When your class is not presenting, students should be taking notes so they can be ready to ask questions after the presentation.

The Quest (20 Minutes)
All sites will mute their audio on the video conference during this time and quickly research the information provided by the presenting class to see what further questions they can ask or come up with some guesses on what the other class studied. Students can use any materials or online resources they have in their classroom to determine the location of the mystery topic - EXCEPT an adult’s prior knowledge!

Tip: Ask your school library media specialist to locate some materials that might be helpful for your class.

Question and Answers (10 Minutes)
This section will be tightly moderated. The classroom(s) who received the presentation will each be allowed to ask each classroom **ONE** question. Depending on how many classes are involved and the number of students, you might want to have your students divide into teams. Each school or team should come up with a question for all the other classrooms. The questions should be "process of elimination questions." For example, if the topic is historical figures and they are wondering whether it was James J. Hill or Alexander Ramsey, they might ask if the historical figure was a businessman or a politician.

Re-Evaluation (10 Minutes)
Classroom teams reassess their conclusions based on new information gathered during the Q&A Session.

Guess! (5 Minutes)
Each classroom presents their guesses. If any of the classrooms guess correctly, congratulations!

Big Reveal! (5 Minutes)
If no one guesses correctly, the classroom can then do a BIG REVEAL on their history subject.