Mystery Class Seasons Challenge: Meet and Greet

Introducing Mystery Class #3
Atlanta, United States (Georgia)
33.75375 N, 84.38847 W

CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 / Frank Kehren

"Hey Y’all"
That's how we greet people here in "the South" of the United States. It is a shortened version of "Hello You All", and most of us say it as a form of greeting to each other and to whomever we meet. Our class is a very small Special Ed. class with only 8 students and our two teachers, Ms. Kohler and Ms. Higham. Here we are in our classroom at South Forsyth High School. We are actually located about 30 miles north of Atlanta by Lake Lanier, but we are generally considered a suburb of Atlanta.

Monument, Mascot, Sports & Clubs
This is the Obelisk monument at our school, and it was placed on the school grounds by one of the first classes to graduate. We have "War Eagle Pride" because the War Eagle is our school mascot. This last school year, every one of our school sports teams made it to the State playoffs. That included the teams for Swimming, Football, Basketball, Cross Country, Softball, Wrestling and Volleyball. We also have Spring Sports like Soccer, Lacrosse,Tennis, Golf, Gymnastics, and Track and Field. We have over 110 Clubs at our school.

Our War Eagle Logo and Athletic Field
You will find our War Eagle logo on everything around here, from T-Shirts to water bottles, and of course the "SF" in the logo stands for our South Forsyth school. And if you look closely at the black scoreboard in this photo below, you can see our logo on top!

School logo

Sports field

Our School
Our School is a public high school in Forsyth County, GA –- a suburb of Atlanta. We have close to 3,000 students and over 200 teachers here….and we are expanding. We have an extensive AP (Advanced Placement) program, and an IB (International Baccalaureate) program as well. Students in grades 9 -12 attend our school.

In our whole county, we have 21 Elementary Schools, 10 Middle Schools and 5 High Schools, and new schools still being built too. We are one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States. Our new construction here at SFHS is adding new offices, classrooms and a new cafeteria that will seat 800 students per lunch period! If you think back to the first Mystery Class Update this season in January, you might remember seeing an aerial drone photograph . . . that was a photo of our school then, under construction. Here are some more photos of the school, from the ground and the air.

School building

The Old Entrance

School building

The new entrance we will use next year

Aerial view of School building

The whole campus as seen from Google Earth

Our City: Atlanta
Atlanta was the only city to be burned during time of war, and only 400 buildings survived Sherman's army during the Civil War. That's why the Phoenix is the symbol of Atlanta. Here are a few fun facts about our city and our state of Georgia. Here in Atlanta, the Capitol Dome is covered in a very thin layer of gold mined from the N. Georgia town of Dahlonega. You can ride your bike from Smyrna, GA to Alabama on the Silver Comet Trail, and Atlanta is home to the Eastern Continental Divide. We also make lots of movies here, and hip-hop and rap music too. We like to shop and play golf on the more than 40 public golf courses throughout the city, and then find a fabulous restaurant for dinner at the end of the day. Come and visit Atlanta– we would love to have you.

City view
CC BY 2.0 / Chuck Koehler

State Capital: Atlanta
State Slogans: The Peach State and The Empire State of the South
State Song: Georgia On My Mind

Atlanta Braves Baseball
We love our Atlanta Braves baseball team! This is a photo of the stadium where the Braves play, known as Turner Field. Originally, the stadium was built for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and named Centennial Olympic Field, and then it was converted into Turner Field.

Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Atlanta Falcons
Atlanta Falcons Football is another local favorite professional sports team. This is a photo of the 2012 Rookies visiting us for a "training day". Julio Jones --#11 -- was here that day working with our students.

Students and football players

Trailer

Football players

Peachtree Street
There are 71 Streets in Atlanta with a variant of the word "Peachtree" in them, and quite often you will get directions that start out with"Go down to Peachtree Street. . . . ." There are many landmarks still to be found along Peachtree Street, and the video below will take you along on a drive from downtown Atlanta to Buckhead.

Culture/Food/Southern Life: The Varsity
The Varsity drive-in restaurant is the world's largest drive-in fast food restaurant. The Varsity serves over 8 million Coca-Cola soft drinks every year. Watch the YouTube video below for a tour of the Varsity.

Culture/Food/Southern Life: Coca Cola
Coca-Cola was discovered right here in Atlanta by a druggist called Dr. Pemberton. He sold the formula to another family here in town and the rest is history. In fact, in Atlanta you don't ask for a soda or a drink you ask for a "Coke". You can visit the World of Coke in downtown Atlanta near Centennial Olympic Park, near the Coca Cola World Headquarters.

Coca Cola drink

Culture/Food/Southern Life: Sweet Tea and Peach Cobbler
To make southern sweet tea you steep your tea and then add sugar to taste –while still very warm. The whole trick is to add your sugar while tea is still warm, so that it completely dissolves. Another favorite treat for us here is Peach Cobbler. There are many recipes, but here is a good one to start out with. Mmmmmm!

Busiest Airport in the World
Our airport is not the largest airport in the world, but it is said to be the busiest airport in the world every year since 2000. In a year, it handles more than 100 Million passengers, which is more than 250,000 passengers every day.

Aerial view of airport

CC BY-SA 3.0 / Craig Butz

Peachtree Road Race
The World's largest 10K Run is held here every year on the 4th of July.

Atlanta Summer Olympics
In 1996, Atlanta hosted the Summer Olympic Games. Over 10,000 athletes competed from almost 200 countries that summer. You can watch the opening ceremonies below (about 6 minutes).

CNN Headquarters
Atlanta is the home base for CNN, or Cable News Network, which occupies an impressive series of buildings known as CNN Center, for its studios and offices.

interior building
Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Stone Mountain Park
The largest bas relief sculpture in the world is carved on the world's largest piece of exposed granite. More. . .

Granite

Ann Kohler

Atlanta's Hindu Temple
The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Atlanta is the largest Hindu Temple of its kind located outside of India. Come along and take a virtual tour of this incredible building and its surrounding lawns and gardens.

Temple

WikimediaCommons/22varshthiaalinemachhu

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Center
Martin Luther King, Jr. made Atlanta his home and it is considered the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Go with Andrew Young to take a virtual tour of this incredible link to the history, and learn more about this Nobel Peace Prize winning minister and civic leader.

The Carter Presidential Center and Library
The papers and history of Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, are housed in Atlanta at The Carter Center Presidential Center and Library. Take a tour of the Library through the video below.

The Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian Trail begins in N.Georgia and travels all the way to Maine. There are numerous day hikes for all skill levels, and the trails can be very busy from spring to fall.

Mountain view

Our State Flag
The current flag of the state of Georgia was adopted on May 8, 2003. The flag bears three stripes consisting of red-white-red, and a blue canton containing a ring of 13 white stars encompassing the state's coat of arms in gold. In the coat of arms, the arch symbolizes the state's constitution and the pillars represent the three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. The words of the state motto, "Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation", are wrapped around the pillars, guarded by a male figure dressed in colonial attire dating back to the time of the American Revolutionary War. The ring of stars that encompass the state's coat of arms symbolize Georgia's status as one of the original Thirteen Colonies.

Farewell
Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Mystery Class 2016 hunt. We have been doing this for over 5 years and couldn't have been more excited to be chosen for the U.S. mystery class. No one in our District except us and our Principal knew we were the Mystery Class, and we hope that neighboring schools in our county will be super surprised and proud when they discover who Mysery Class #3 is this year. Like all of you, we have searched for the other 9 secret classes since January and hope to be lucky in the answers we have named.

This is one of the favorite activities that we do during the school year, and we will carry this memory of being Mystery Class #3 with us forever. We thought we would end where we started, with a view of the school campus under construction from our Engineering Dept. drone. We hope that everyone enjoyed hunting for us and feel free to contact us through our class email. We would love to hear from you!