Journey North Mystery Class Spring 2003

Mystery Class Update: May 2, 2003

Today's Report Includes:

"Where In The World" Are They?
A Special Note From Journey North
Coming Next Week: Meet Your New Friends
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! A Call For Mystery Sites in 2004
How Contest Entries Were Ranked
Announcing the Mystery Class Contest Results!
Reminder: Come Back Next Week!
Year-End Evaluation: Please Share Your Thoughts!

Where In The "World" Are They?

Here's the answer you've been waiting for!

Click on map for larger view

The 10 Mystery Classes for 2003 Are:

Introducing	Location	Latitude	Longitude
Mystery Class # 1	Derby Line, Vermont, USA	45.000N,	72.118 W
Mystery Class # 2	Honolulu, Hawaii, USA	21.308 N	157.817 W
Mystery Class # 3	Antananarivo, Madagascar	18.917 S	47.500 E
Mystery Class # 4	Port-au-Prince, Haiti	18.533 N	72.333 W
Mystery Class # 5	Groningen, Netherlands	53.217 N	6.550 E
Mystery Class # 6	Banjul, Gambia	13.467 N	16.650 W
Mystery Class # 7	South Pole, Antarctica	90.000 S	172.633 E*
Mystery Class # 8	Libreville, Gabon	0.383 N	9.450 E
Mystery Class # 9	Arras, France	50.283 N	2.783 E
Mystery Class # 10	Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica	8.700 N	83.483 W

* Longitude for MC #7 is "your choice" since all longitude lines converge at the pole. The given 172.633 E is borrowed from New Zealand because logistics operations for the Pole come through Christchurch.

A Special Note From Journey North

Congratulations from everyone at Journey North to all of you who participated in the Mystery Class learning Activity this year!

We know that you all worked very hard on Mystery Class whether you participated in the Contest portion or not. And no matter how many Mystery Sites you correctly identified, you should be very proud of yourselves--this is a very challenging activity! Especially in a year like this, when once again we received such an overwhelming number of entries! With the larger number of entries came a larger number of correct answers.

So give yourself a high five! What an accomplishment for all of you to go from graphing sunrise and sunset data beginning 11 weeks ago, to figuring out approximate longitude, to determining a real location somewhere in the world. You ALL did a fantastic job!

Coming Next Week: Meet Your New Friends
Be sure to come back next week when you'll finally be able to "meet" your new (and not so secret anymore) Mystery Friends! Just like you, they all worked very hard for this activity.

They studied and prepared their clues and pictures carefully, and had to keep a secret for all this time! So they'll be really happy to finally meet you next week. They'll send their personal greetings, more information about their location, and photos too. Oh, and we almost forgot, there's still ONE MORE SECRET to come next week--don't miss one site's world famous, mouth-watering, treat--it's one people fly across the World to get!

May 9: Come back and Meet the 10 Mystery Sites!

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! A Call For Mystery Sites in 2004!	Help! Know anyone in far and distant places that can keep a secret? We're looking for classrooms outside of North America that would like to be one of the 10 secret Mystery Classes in 2004! PLEASE CONTACT: our feedback form

How Contest Entries Were Ranked
We ranked the contest entries by grade level, so our first step was to separate the entries according to their grade levels. If the entry came from a mixed-grade classroom, we ranked the class according to the highest grade in the class.

After that, we carefully reviewed each entry to see how many correct answers there were with both the correct CITY/TOWN/VILLAGE and the correct COUNTRY.

Special Notes:

For MC #1, Derby Line, Vermont, USA, it was required that the full name of "Derby Line" be given for the city; this is because there is a location in Vermont called "Derby", which is a separate and distinct city that would not have been a correct answer.
For MC #2, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, we also accepted "Manoa, Hawaii" as a correct city, as one of the clues related to a building in this suburb.
For MC #3, the full city name is Antananaviro, but we also accepted as correct an alternative city name of "Tananarive".
For MC #7, South Pole Antarctica, we also accepted answers indicating "South Pole Station" or "Amundsen Scott Station".
For MC #10, we did require your answer to identify the location as Corcovado National Park, because the clues specifically indicated that the location "is not actually a city, but instead is a National Park."

CONGRATULATIONS To All Contestants--You Did a Great Job!

Announcing the 2003 Mystery Class Contest Results!

(Hey, did you skip the beginning of this report and peek already? Well, once you read the results below, be sure to go back up to the beginning of this report for important messages!)

Now at long last, here are the entries with the highest number of correct answers, listed by Grade Level:

GRADE 2 (1 classroom entry, and all 10 answers were correct)

Ms. Mary Beth Forrest's Room 8, Herbert Hoover Elementary School.

GRADE 3 (10 classroom entries)

A Three-way Tie with 10 correct answers each:

Miss Allison Bailey's class, Citrus Elementary, Vero Beach, FL.
Ms. Saundra McDonald's class, McGillis School, Salt Lake City, UT.
Mrs. Parsons' class, Otter Lake Elementary,White Bear Lake, MN.

GRADE 4 (48 classroom entries)

The Fourth Graders Went Wild! 15 Classrooms Got All 10 Answers Correct!

Ms. Megan Clark's Class, Cider Mill School, Wilton, CT.
Ms. Virginia DeNucci's Lakeaires Elem.School, White Bear Lake, MN.
Ms. Virginia DeNucci's Lincoln Elem. School, White Bear Lake, MN.
Ms. Virginia DeNucci's ParkviewCenterpoint Elem. White Bear Lake, MN.
Ms. Louise Dillman's Class, Drinking Gourd Elem., Eugene,OR.
Mrs.Hoffman & vol. Ms. Petermann's Class, Douglas Elem.,Raleigh, NC.
Ms. Priscilla Keeney's Class, Chilhowee Inter. School, Knoxville, TN.
Mr. Kust's Class, Breck School, Minneapolis, MN.
Mrs. Charlotte Layne's Class, Cider Mill School, Wilton, CT.
Ms. Michele Messina's Class, Cider Mill School, Wilton, CT.
Ms. Julie McCoy's Class, Lexington, OK.
Ms Monroe's(Brooke, Jonathon & Taylor), Citrus Elem.,Vero Beach, FL.
Ms. Karen Pape's Class, Breck School, Minneapolis, MN.
Mrs. Marie Schwager's Class, Highland Park Elementary, Pueblo, CO.
Ms. Ann Young's Class, Cider Mill School, Wilton, CT.

GRADE 5 (40 classroom entries)

Fantastic Grade Five Was Really Alive! This grade had 10 classrooms answering all 10 questions correctly!

Ms. Virginia DeNucci's Class, Lincoln Elem., White Bear Lake, MN.
Mrs. Gatto's Class, Bibich Elementary School,Dyer, IN.
Ms. Alison Hall's Class, Tom Longboat Jr. P.S., Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Mr. David London's 4/5 Class, Brightview Elem., Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Mrs. Phillips's Class, Jefferson Elementary School, Pella, IA.
Miss Snow's Class, Bibich Elementary School, Dyer, IN.
Mr. Van Roekel's Class, Jefferson Elementary School, Pella, IA.
Mrs.Voelker's Class, Pymatuning Valley Middle School, Andover, OH.
Mrs. Westerkamp's Class, Jefferson Elementary School, Pella, IA.
Ms. Kate Whelan's 4/5 Reach Class, Birch Lake Elementary, White Bear Lake, MN.

GRADE 6 (52 classroom entries)

Super Grade Six had the most submissions of all grades, and 11 classes had all 10 answers correct!

Mrs. Arm's Class, Levy-Lakeside School, Merrick, NY.
Ms. Martha Butler's Class, Oak Lane Day School, Blue Bell PA.
Mrs. Goyette's Math Class(Set 2), Bedford Middle School,Westport, CT.
Mrs. Goyette's Math Class, Bedford Middle School, Westport, CT.
Ms. Margaret Morton's 5/6 Class, So. Bristol School, ME.
Ms. Sloan's Fifth hour Class, Jay Middle School, Jay, OK.
Ms. Sloan's Sixth hour Class, Jay Middle School, Jay, OK.
Ms. Sloan's Seventh hour Class, Jay Middle School, Jay, OK.
Ms. Doris Sosik's Class, Burgess Elem. School, Sturbridge, MA
Ms. Vanessa Van Sciver's Section B, Beverly City School, Beverly, NJ.
Ms. Nan Youngerman's Class, Spring Harbor Middle School, Madison, WI.

GRADE 7 (33 classroom entries)

A Seven-way way Tie with all 10 answers correct!

Mrs. Kloewer's Science Class via Brett, York Middle School, York, NE.
Mr. Lynn's Science Classes, Tremont Junior High School, Tremont, IL.
Ms. Lynne Mackay-Atha's Class, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC.
Ms. Sandy Roggow's Classes, Minocqua-Hazelhurst-Lake Tomahawk Elem., WI.
Ms. Karen Steenson's Class 7a, Risen Christ School, Mpls, MN.
Ms. Karen Steenson's Class 7b, Risen Christ School, Mpls, MN.
Mr. Chris Sturm, Marlboro Middle School, Marlboro, NJ.

GRADE 8 (27 classroom entries)

An Eight-way tie! (10 answers correct)

Mr Amlung's 8th Bell Class, Mariemont Junior High, Mariemont, OH.
Mr. Iverson, Aqua, Central Middle School, Eden Prairie, MN.
Mrs. Lodge's D/E science classes, RHAM Middle School,Hebron, CT.
Ms. Margaret Morton's 7/8 Class, So. Bristol School, ME.
Ms. Kris Owens/Kiki Abrahamson's 3-8 grades, Fireweed Academy, Homer,AK.
Ms. Potts' 6th period class, Manchester Middle School, Richmond, VA.
Dr. Sodano-Richards' Class, DeKalb School of the Arts, Atlanta, GA.
Ms. Karen Steenson's 8Z Class, Risen Christ School, Mpls, MN.

GRADE 9 (6 classroom entries)

1 class had all 10 answers correct

Ms. Thomas' Period 5 & 8 Classes, DeKalb School of the Arts, Atlanta, GA.

GRADE 10 (5 classroom entries)

1 class had all 10 answers correct

Dr. Sodano-Richards' Class, DeKalb School of the Arts, Atlanta, GA.

GRADE 11 (no classroom entries)

GRADE 12 (3 classroom entries)

1 class had all 10 answers correct

Mr. Ward's Earth and Space Science course, Ajax HS, Ontario, Canada.

Reminder: Be sure to come back next week to "meet" and learn more about your new Mystery Friends!

Year-End Evaluation: Please Share Your Thoughts!
Please take a few minutes to share your suggestions and comments in our Year-End Evaluation Form below. The information you provide at the end of each year is the single most important tool used to guide our planning.

Journey North
Year End Evaluation
Please share your thoughts

The FINAL Mystery Class Update Will Be Posted on May 9, 2003