Telecollaborative project: Getting to Know You

Goal
To provide students with an opportunity to gather information on the geography and culture of the different regions of Canada.

Overview
Getting to Know You is a three week Internet-based project for schools, community groups or families registered with Everest 2000. This introductory activity will provide children with an opportunity to "meet" children from other communities across Canada. Throughout the Everest 2000 Expedition, Getting to Know You will also be used as a template for activities and possible contact with students in Nepal. Not only can Getting to Know You be used for Everest 2000 projects, it may also be used to open lines of communication through additional teacher-developed online projects.

In this online project, schools from across Canada will be placed in teams of 10 schools. Schools will e-mail specific information to the other team members in the form of clues. The other schools will study the clues and eventually discover the locations of each of the schools in their team.

Getting to Know You will encourage children from across the nation, to learn more about their own country. Getting to Know You will also serve as a template for some of the activities in Phase 3 of the expedition. In Phase 3, the expedition will be trekking from Kathmandu to Base Camp on Mt. Everest. Using this template, team members will share information on the geography and culture of the different regions of Nepal.

How to participate?
The expedition is complete and the telecollaborative project has been wrapped up. All other activities are accessible and re-usable.

Here's how it worked:

1. Each school was provided with the e-mail addresses of the other schools in their collaborative group.

2. A schedule of dates for exchanging clues and the content of the clues was provided to registered schools.

3. On the prescribed date, each school sent all of the others a specific clue. A total of ten clues were sent by each school over the three week time period. A non-dated list of clues was supplied.

4. At the conclusion of the challenge, schools sent the results of their research to the other schools in their collaborative group.

Instructions
Your school will be sending information about your community to the other schools in your Everest 2000 team. The idea is to give the other schools a little bit of information each time. After all, you do not want to give everything away during the first week of the activity!

Hint: Divide your students into groups based on the number of schools in your team. Assign each group of students one clue to research. Compile all of the clues ahead of time so they are ready to send on the scheduled date.

Your school will also be receiving information, based on the clues, from the other schools in your team. Your students must decipher these clues to identify the location of the other schools on your team.

Hint: Using the same groups of researchers, assign each group one mystery school to research. This will help keep everybody busy and on task.

Clues:

Day 1: Describe the weather and climate in your area by: