Teaching
Suggestions
Adapting the My Investigation Journal Page
Use the My Investigation Journal Page as designed, or customize as appropriate for your class. Just click to download, open through your Word application, and print! Or edit to enter your own questions, categories, or layout.
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The Name of Investigator line is a place for the student or group to record their name.
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On the Date line, students can write the date of the Mystery Class update they are working on when they use the journal page. Recording the date will help in tracking what the investigator(s) know from one week to the next.
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We encourage teachers to divide each class into 10 groups, with each group being responsible for one specific Mystery Class. Use the Mystery Class # space as the line to specify the particular Mystery Class # they are searching for.
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Use the "This Week..." section as a place for students to summarize what they learned about their Mystery Class from the data and other information received in that week's Mystery Class Update. For instance, they can summarize their Mystery Class's sunrise and sunset times and photoperiod for that week, comment on its graph lines, and perhaps even how their Mystery Class's data compares to the data for other Mystery Classes that week, just to name a few ideas.
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The "Compared to last week..." section is a place for students to note how this most recent data compares to the data from the prior week or weeks. It's a place to note changes, or the absence of changes.
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"Right now this is what I'm thinking..." is the section for students to record each week what they are thinking about the location of their Mystery Class, as the new data is revealed, as clues are posted. It's a chance to state what hypotheses the students have formed as new information arrives each week, and a great assessment tool as well.
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Answer our Journal Questions that appear in every "News" Update. Just flip the page over for more space.
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Thematic Journals The Mystery Class investigation is rich with examples of key science concepts (such as sunlight, seasons, and cycles). See more tips on teaching themes and Journey North journals: Building Understanding Through Long-term Studies.
My Investigation Journal Page
(doc or html )
