JN Mystery Class :: Week Seven

This week were were given the regular sunrise and sunset data for the 10 mystery classes and longitude clues. These clues are very helpful in determining the longitude coordinate for each location. Journey North gives very clear instructions on how to calculate these, along with a map where you can place your findings.

We placed each chart based on the information we found out. I added labels on the photo. The black horizontal dotted line represents the equator, the vertical orange one is the prime meridian. We forgot to add our home location for the photo, it would be in the top left corner, the Western Northern Hemisphere.

JN Mystery Class :: Weeks Five & Six

We have continued working on our Journey North Mystery Class charts. I am only behind in posting our updates!

Update for February 27 sunrise & sunset data

Celeste helps too!

Update for March 5 sunset & sunrise data

Tomorrow we received Longitude Clues as well as the sunrise and sunset data! Here is a link to a helpful teacher's practice packet.
Another helpful link is for the slideshow: A Clue About Longitude Clues.
We like to use the form below to calculate our longitude clues. I am not sure where I first found this form. I wish I could give credit to whoever created this!


<><><><><><> <><><><> <><><><><><> <><> <><><><><><><><><><>

Mystery Class # _________	Sunrise in UT/GMT and Date
Step #1 Fill in Sunrise Time and Date GMT/UT	BOX A ____________time ______________date
Step #2 Fill in Greenwich Sunrise Time on March 20	BOX B 06:02 am
Step #3 Difference in hours and minutes between A and B	BOX C _____________hours ___________minutes
Step #4 Convert hours into minutes from BOX C	BOX D ___________minutes
Step #5 Divide by the number in Box D by 4	BOX E __________degrees
Step #6 Eastern or Western	BOX F East or West

JN Mystery Class Update :: Week 3

This past Friday, we were able to position the 10 mystery class locations compared to our home location. We hope to have them in the right order. We will be able to verify once we receive more data. We now have 4 locations in the Southern Hemisphere and 6 in the Northern Hemisphere, our home is also in the Northern Hemisphere.

Journey North helped us place that unknown location that was so close to the Equator by leaving us this clue:

Where Do I Roam?I'm Ursus maritumus. I have a clue for you. More than half of the Mystery classes are located in the same hemisphere where I roam. Can you figure out which ones, using the photoperiod data?

Photo from Journey North.

2011 Journey North Mystery Class ~ Our Guesses!

Last week, Adrienne and I finished working through the 10 Mystery Class clues and submitted our findings to Journey North. The results will be revealed this Friday here. This was our 4th year participating and we had 100% for all previous three years. We both hope we are correct again and can't wait to read more about each locations!

Here are our 10 guesses:

1. Perth, Australia 31

2. Guatemala City, Guatemala

3. Sanae IV, Antarctica

4. Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

5. Mafi Keng, South Africa

6. Jerusalem, Israel

7. Buenos Aires, Argentina

8. Sarnia, Canada

9. Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo

10. Daejeon, South Korea.

Journey North Mystery Class ~ Week Eight

This week, we received all the sunrise/sunset data for the 10 mystery classes along with the first set of interdisciplinary clues. These clues can be related to culture, geography, history, or any other facts. Adrienne and I really enjoy working with these. The first set helps us with trying to guess where in the world these classes are, usually we can figure out what continent at least, sometimes more!

Journey North Mystery Class ~ Week Seven

This week, we were given an extra set of clues in the form of sunrise time on the equinox. These are very helpful as we are able to calculate an approximate longitude for each 10 mystery classes. I set up our charts in the photo to reflect our findings so far.

The Journey North site has helpful information reguarding this new set of clues and how to calculate here (under the "longitudes clues are here!).

This Friday, we'll be receiving our first set of interdisciplinary clues. Adrienne and I love these! Now the fun will start!

Journey North Mystery Class ~ Week Six

We are about halfway through the Journey North Mystery Class project! This week, we received the Universal Time data for all 10 mystery locations as well as their regular sunrise and sunset times. These UT times will help us determine the approximate longitude for each location. When we received this data for the Equinox, we will be able to make our calculations. You can read more about these special clues at the Mystery Class page here.

Here are the charts for week six, first is the Northern Hemisphere, then my line showing the equator, followed by the Southern Hemisphere locations:

---------------------equator--------------------

Journey North Mystery Class ~ Week Five

The charts showing sunrise and sunset date up to February 28.

Adrienne working on her journal page for Week 5.

Journey North Mystery Class ~ Week Three

Journey North Mystery Class continues!

The journal page this week asked us to reflect on the data and the line graphs. We don't do line graphs, but we do our own version of graphs. Last week, we had seperated the locations between Northern and Southern Hemispheres based on who was gaining daylight, like us in the Northern Hemisphere, and who was losing daylight. This week, we were able to confirm our findings by comparing the photoperiod amounts over the previous two weeks.

The second part of the journal page asked us "how the data and graph lines show us which Mystery Class sites are north and south of your location". We looked at the data sheets a little closer this time. We started with the Northern Hemisphere ones and compared with our home location. Our opinion is that #8 is the only one north of us, but it is very close latitude-wise to us. When we took our tour of the world on our latitude line last week, we selected a few locations and compared their sunrise and sunset data with our own. We noticed that all locations had the same photoperiod amount. The Mystery Class #8 has only a few minutes (less than 5mn) difference with our home location. Even the sunrise and sunset times are very very close. The first week our sunrise was at 7:45 and theirs was 7:46, our sunset was 17:41 and theirs 17:43!! Over the last two weeks, it has stayed very close still. This location could still be on the other side of the world, but at the same latitude as ours! It will be interesting to figure it out.

On the photo at the top of this post, you can see the locations arranged by Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The writing shows which one is which. I should have put the southern below the northern, but I didn't think about it until I was writing this! I added an Equator line at the bottom of the photo and the mystery classes are arranged by what we think is their positions compared to it.  So that means that we think #9 (gold/brown) is in the Southern Hemisphere and closer to the Equator than #3 (yellow). With the group on the right, the Northern Hemisphere, we have added our home location. In that group, #2 (light blue) is closer to the Equator than #8 (grey). These are only our findings, so we might be wrong! The fun part of this project is to try to figure it yourself, also as the weeks go by, I won't share as much information! It is also fun to compare your findings with others, so let me know by leaving a comment if you want to do that! Have fun!

Journey North Mystery Class ~ First Two Weeks

We have now completed the first two weeks in JN Mystery Class. Nothing too interesting yet, but after this second set of sunrise and sunset information, we were able to divide the 10 mystery classes into Northern and Southern hemispheres. The locations that lost daylight from the first week are in the Southern hemisphere, the ones that are increasing their photoperiods (like us) are in the Northern hemisphere.

We also worked on the journal pages. This week's journal page with the latitude shoes was fun. We traveled around the globe along the same latitude line!

Journey North Mystery Class ~ How to get started

After reading Sarah's comment from this post, and answering her in an e-mail,  I decided to share my answer here with you. We participate in Mystery Class and love it, but we do our graphs a little differently.

I also thought that explaining how to get started with Mystery Class might be helpful. I hope my explanations will be clear enough! Mystery Class started this week, and I am not sure if it's too late to register, but you might enjoy doing it on your own as well...

The first thing you need to do is to print the two different charts. They are both on this page. The first one is the DATA SHEET. You need to have 11 of these (1 for your home location and 1 for each of the 10 mystery locations), then you will need to print the GRAPH. You will also need 11 copies of that one. You could photocopy or just print all of it, that's up to you!

Once you have all these printed, label them 1 to 10 and "home", the charts and the graphs. We like to use some tape and attach the graphs together. If you tape them together on the back and a bit of the sides of the graph, then you won't have trouble when you're coloring.

We also colour-code each location. We then keep those pencils tied with an elastic and with the charts and graphs for the whole duration of Mystery Class.

Below you can see our graph for our Home location. On Monday, we recorded the sunrise and sunset using the Weather Network. In the USA, you could use this site.

Once you have recorded the photoperiod (the amount of daylight) on your data sheet, you can record it on your graph. The numbers on the left side of the graph represent the hours. We colour the night in black and the daylight hours in whatever colour we chose for that location.



After a few weeks, this graph will be a very visual way to determine if the location is in the Northern Hemisphere (gaining daylight) or in the Southern Hemisphere (loosing daylight), along with some other clues. You can see on the photo below. This is the graph showing our home location from last year, the shift half way through shows the Daylight Savings Time:

Every monday, you record your own sunrise/sunset times and calculate the photoperiod on the chart and then graph it. 

On Fridays, you can visit the Mystery Class Updates Page or if you signed up, you will receive an e-mail from Journey North with a link giving you the sunrise and sunset information for the 10 mystery classes. You calculate their photoperiod (amount of daylight hours) and you graph it for each location. After only a couple of weeks, you will be able to tell a few facts about these classes, and Journey North will begin sending more clues as well. 

Journey North has journal pages that you can print out. These are a great starting point for talking about your discoveries. There is also a treasure of resources on this page, and on the Kids Page, there are many slideshows and more explanations.

If you want to tie in some reading with this activity, you can search for books that talk about the seasons, time zones, and longitude and latitude (here is a Book Sharing Monday about 2).

You can find great links on this post at my friend Carol's blog.

There are many more resources. Mystery Class can be built up into a wonderful learning activity!

Journey North Mystery Class Starts Monday!!

Journey North Mystery Class starts this Monday. We will be participating for the fourth year in a row and are really looking forward to it!

This weekly activity takes us right into spring and includes learning about science, world geography, math, history and more I'm sure! I can't say enough good things about it!

You can read more about it yourself, and sign up if you like, at Journey North.

If you would like to see past posts from us, click here.

WE WON!!!

We did it! Third year in a row! We found all 10 Mystery Class locations! Our homeschool (with many other homeschool families) is part of the list of winning classes with all 10 answers correct.

Next week, we will get to meet the actual classes that participated in being the mystery locations!

Mystery Class 2010 :: Our answers

Now that the deadline for entering the answers is passed (April 30), I can share with you our answers...This year was an interesting year again, with some locations a little more tricky than others!

I can't say enough good things about this activity. We love it and look forward to it all year long! It combines math, world geography, science, researching skills (with internet and globe/atlas), and learning about world culture and history. If you are interested, please visit Journey North Mystery Class, it is a free yearly event.

I hope we are correct this time around again...this is our third year participating and if we win, it would be our third win! Each location has a link to wikipedia, so you can find out a bit more about each if you wish.


Mystery Class #1 : Winnebago, USA
Mystery Class #2: Monteverde, Costa Rica
Mystery Class #3: Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica
Mystery Class #4: Christchurch, New Zealand
Mystery Class #5: Kuching, Malaysia
Mystery Class #6: Brussels, Belgium
Mystery Class #7: Princess Elisabeth Base, Antarctica
Mystery Class #8: Barneo, Arctic Ocean Ice Sheet
Mystery Class #9: Pekanbaru, Indonesia
Mystery Class #10: Onjuku, Japan

We will find out the actual locations on May 7th! Only a few days away...

Mystery Class Update!

We are getting close to the end now!

We have had a ton of fun again this week working with the interdisciplinary clues, but,

I won't be posting our guesses now until after the contest deadline of April 30th.

I had an interesting comment this past week regarding my posting our guesses here and well, to make a long story short, I wouldn't want any other school student to use my guesses (should I say "cheat") without doing the work themselves.

I also had another comment from Sarah (dstb) asking about the graphs that are making. There was no e-mail or blog attached to your blogger profile, so I am answering here! I hope you will see this :)

I didn't come up with this particular way of graphing the photoperiod. It is on the Journey North Mystery Class website here:

Graphing Photoperiod A Different Approach.

We really like seeing the decrease or increase of daylight with these graphs.

Journey North Mystery Class Update!

Now the fun begins! Adrienne and I have so much with the Interdisciplinary Clues every year. This time, Andre is joining us.
We calculated the approximate longitude for each of the mystery classes with the Longitude Clues using the time of sunrise on the equinox for each location in Universal Time from last week and it helped us make our guesses this week.

Here are our guesses so far, using the longitude clues, the weekly photoperiod collected since February, and the interdisciplinary clues. We could be wrong, this is early on still, and in the past, we were wrong with our first guesses...

Mystery Class #1: North America
Mystery Class #2: Central America
Mystery Class #3: Antarctica
Mystery Class #4: Marshall Islands or New Zealand (South Islands)
Mystery Class #5: Indonesia
Mystery Class #6: France or Spain or Belgium or Netherlands
Mystery Class #7: Queen Maud Land in Antarctica
Mystery Class #8: Arctic Ocean
Mystery Class #9: Island of Sumatra or Maylasia or Thailand
Mystery Class #10: Japan

Are you participating in Journey North Mystery Class? Leave me a comment if you are!

Journey North Mystery Class ~ Update

Journey North Mystery Class ~ Update

Here are the charts for this week for Mystery Class.

Journey North Mystery Class ~ Update

Journey North Mystery Class ~ Update # 2

This week, we were able to seperate the Northern Hemisphere locations from the Southern Hemisphere ones.

One location is still in complete darkness, while the other is only receiving daylight!