|  Teacher
Preparation
Background Information:
This project is designed for middle school students
studying world geography. Through video conference technology,
students are able to meet other students while learning
about cities and countries in the world. Sessions are
available for various areas of the world (i.e. Western
Hemisphere, Europe, Asia, Africa, etc.)
Prior to the video conference
each classroom will create a presentation with clues
about their ONE mystery country and city. The
other classrooms, using maps, the Internet, textbooks,
and other resources, will try to discover the mystery
location presented
by each participating classrooms.
COST: This project is FREE to Berrien and Cass county schools. Other
participating schools will dial into our bridge, incurring
the line costs.
Your Classroom Presentation:
Choose one
independent country (no territories) to present.
Six countries total will be presented. Email your country
right away to Janine Lim at janine.lim@berrienresa.org
so she can check for duplicates.
Each classroom should
plan a five to seven minute presentation. For more information
on what it can include, visit the Media
Tips page. Talk to your technology or distance learning
coordinator to determine the possibilities available
to you in your distance learning room. Your technology
coordinator can help you gather the necessary equipment
and will be helpful to you in preparing your presentation.
Your students' classroom
presentation should answer a combination of mystery
country and city questions. In answering the
questions you will help other classes figure out
your location. Use the research
web links to help you find the answers, as well
as other print resources you have in your school.
When creating your presentation,
please recognize the need to clearly communicate
the clues. If you are making a creative presentation,
please make sure to clearly indicate which clue is being
given. You don't need to present the clues in order,
however, please do the country clues together and the
city clues together; as the worksheet is double sided.
This will help the efficiency of taking notes. If your
clues are not in order, please clearly indicate which
clue is being addressed and which section. Give the
other classes time to find the clue and write it down.
To clearly communicate
clues, we highly recommend
visual cues of the clues. This could be a PowerPoint
presentation to accompany the clues; using the document
camera to present the text of the clues; or using large
signs that students hold up while presenting. Check
out the examples to see how this could be done.
Visual cues assist in getting the spelling correct,
understanding when students mispronounce location names,
and help those taking notes get accurate information.
When using visual clues, be sure to leave them on the
screen long enough to allow copying.
When working on your presentation,
you may wish to divide the questions
among the students in your classroom so that all students
participate in the research and presentation preparation.
Introduction
In addition, prepare a short (a minute or so) introduction
about your school and your geographical location. The
introduction time will be used to check audio at each
site as well as give an idea of who is connected.
Video Releases
The event will be taped by Berrien RESA for improvement
of the project, as well as illustrations to post on
the web for next year's project. In addition, many schools
tape the program they participate in. Because of this,
please make sure the students who appear on camera have
permission from their parents/guardian. (Some schools
have a video/photograph release form built into their
registration process. Here's a Word
file sample you can use. Please leave the credit
at the bottom of the form.)
Preparation for the Event:
Divide your
students into five teams. Each team will be responsible
for discovering one mystery location presented
by the other classrooms. The students will have half
an hour after the completion of all presentations to
match the classrooms with their corresponding mystery
locations, using books, atlases, the Internet, etc.
Go over the
agenda with students so that they understand the
process for the day. If possible, take along a poster
of the agenda to post in your distance learning room
to help students keep on track during the day.
Have students practice
the presentation. Time the presentation to
make sure it is 7 minutes or less. Emphasize speaking
slowly, loudly and clearly. The biggest issue with this
project is audio. Remind students that everyone else
is listening carefully to their presentation to take
notes. The goal is to have the other students clearly
hear the clues and be able to record the information.
Communicating the clues understandably is crucial! If
students are reading clues, have them read from note
cards instead of paper. Rustling paper during a video
conference can make it impossible to hear the clue.
You may wish to tape the practice presentation and have
students view it to improve their presentation skills.
Make sure students understand
the process for asking one question of each classroom.
After the half hour is up each team will be allowed
to ask each classroom one question. Each school should
come up with a question for all the other classrooms.
The questions should be 'eliminating' questions. In
other words if the students believe the town or city
is this or that, they pose a question that eliminates
one. The questions should be "yes or no" questions
only! In addition, do not ask, "Is your country
Canada?" as this type of question gives it away
for the rest of the schools.
Revealing The Answer
Prepare a visual
to reveal the answer to your presentation (city &
country). If possible write down the name of the city
and country to show on the document camera or with a
big poster so that other schools can easily tell whether
or not they got it correct. Be creative here if you
want!
Materials to bring:
- Bring all materials
needed for your presentation. Bring research notes
in case another school has specific questions about
your country.
- Copy the note
taking form for each student in the class. (Suggestion:
if you have each student takes notes on each presentation,
if a team figures out a country quickly they can help
another team.)
- Bring any print materials
for students to use in their research such as:
- Globes
- Atlases
- Textbooks (i.e.
Geography,The World and Its People by Glencoe
has "At a Glance" pages that are helpful.)
- Almanacs
- World Book Encyclopedia
- Worldmark Encyclopedia
of Nations
- Worldmark Encyclopedia
(set) of Lands and People
- Road atlast for
Canada and Mexico
- Goode's World Atlas
- Wall Maps
- Reference books
from the library
- Optional: Paper
and markers for students to create signs for your
document camera to share their guesses. (Some
classes have done this if they guess the answers
faster than others.)
- If students have laptops,
have them bookmark the Internet
resources to be used during the research portion
of the event (you might even have them make that the
homepage for the day.
- If desired, arrange
for the use of computers/Internet connection during
the half hour students use to guess the mystery location.
Berrien and Cass county schools, if you need assistance
in arranging for the computers, email Janine at janine.lim@berrienresa.org.
Helpful Resources from Other
Projects
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