From: Jan Wee <jwee@mail.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: Mystery Site Activity - Day One
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 22:17:04 -0500
Dear discuss-lfm members, Thanks to Charles Lindgren for sharing his overview of how the Mystery Site Activity is progressing at Gates Intermediate School. The activity is designed to promote higher level thinking skills and it appears that solving the site locations provides a real challenge. We have adjusted levels of difficulty -- increasing it for high schoolers by having them hone in on the latitude/longitude without choices of site locations, and easing the difficulty for elementary students by limiting the possible locations to three locales. There are nearly 1000 students in grades three through twelve registered for this activity. We would enjoy hearing input from more educators from all grade level ranges. Is the activity challenging? Do the younger students have the skills to analyze Mystery Sites and eliminate possible locations? Please share your input! What hurdles do students face as they try to solve the Mystery Sites? How will you evaluate student performance? Any suggestions that you can offer to those who are just starting the Activity? Thanks, Charles, for your suggestions! Looking forward to hearing more! Jan Wee, moderator