The Rockets are making new friends around the world. Peeples Elementary 3rd grade enrichment students have been putting their geography skills to the test and learning how the world is connected via Mystery Meets.
With Google Meet enabling students to see into each other’s classrooms, they are bridging distances and learning about the world around them. While focusing on geography skills like major landforms, oceans, key vocabulary, and cardinal directions, they are learning first-hand from kids who live in those locations.
They ask each other questions like “are you in the northwest hemisphere?” or “are you south of the equator?” As clues evolve, questions narrow in like “does your country touch the Indian ocean?” or “are you east of the Mississippi river?” to help them guess where their new friends are located.
After the classes guess locations, they learn about life in both places. The kids have “traveled” to Vietnam, Alaska, Montana, Missouri, and many more locations. In Alaska they learned that the kids even go outside for recess at 20 degrees below zero, and they have moose on their playground. Not to mention, their closest grocery store is 2 hours away! They learned that the school in Vietnam is about the same distance from the equator as we are, that the kids love meat, and that they are 12 hours ahead of us.
Enrichment teacher Shaylen Dixon is eager to see students grow in their understanding of the world through Mystery Meets.
“They are learning more and more about the world around them,” she said. “They are becoming more culturally aware, learning about needs around the world, learning how to compare and contrast, learning how to formulate questions, learning how to become critical thinkers, and building their geographical knowledge.”
— Provided by the Fayette County School System.
