Playing Detective: Engaging Your Students

I was snooping through IG looking for ideas when I saw Kayla Collins @teachlikeyoumeanit using black light (UV) flashlights for a math lesson. I do not teach math, but the wheels started spinning about how I could utilize in my high school Social Studies room.

FIRST, the resources you need: I used a highlighter, yellow Astrobrights paper and the flashlights.

Yellow Astrobrights paper and highlighter...

Without the flashlight...

So much easier to see with the flashlight!

Here are the flashlights I use:

Really fair price, but fair warning: Each take 3 AAA batteries!

NEXT, the lesson: Today, I used these for WWI and WWII, and I wrote (with the highlighter) events from each on the yellow paper, which was divided into 4 sections. I laminated the paper and cut them into the 4 sections. I did 12 for each -- so I had a total of 24 cards. Before class started, I hid the cards around the room.

DURING CLASS: So, I had 5 flashlight people, 2 people at the chart paper (1 labeled WWI and 1 labeled WWII) and the rest of the kids searching for the cards. ALL the kids were involved and invested and RUNNING around the room! The 2 kids at the charts were responsible for being the final say before the card was hung.

After all cards were found and they decided where they thought they went, I stopped the time. 

AFTER THE GAME: I had the students get out their notebooks and we went through the cards on the chart. They took notes as we discovered whether they were placed on the right chart. To make it more interesting, I timed the kids and told them they were competing against the other classes. So, I placed the classes times and correctness on the board and covered it, so the other classes could see who did the best!

Seeing if their time was better!

My kids absolutely LOVED this lesson. I wanted to take the time and explain it on my blog because I know your kids would love it too!

Happy teaching, friends
Erin