News
April 2013 - Teaching Tools – New MysteryQuests and Interactive Whiteboards
Thanks to financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in 2012-13, the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project was able to develop nine new MysteryQuests, three for each of the following Mysteries: The Redpath Mansion Mystery, Death on a Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy, and Death of a Diplomat. The Critical Thinking Consortium created the new MysteryQuests for the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project, working with historical researchers Annmarie Adams (McGill University), Gregory Klages (University of Guelph- Humber) and Larry Hannant (Camosun College) and our co-director Ruth Sandwell (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education).
You can find these new MysteryQuests – and all of the original thirty quests – at MysteryQuests.ca
Funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council also enabled us to create some new interactive whiteboards. You can download them for free from our website – and please send along your feedback!
These new whiteboards were developed by a team of students from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto under the guidance of Garfield Gini-Newman, with design input from Mary Abbott. Each of the whiteboards is designed for use with one of our popular mystery websites.
November 16, 2012
Merna Forster, GUMICH Executive Director, presented a workshop at an international conference in Seattle. The session “History Mysteries: Students Become Historians Using Cold Case Crimes” was given at the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies. Promotional materials for the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project were also displayed at a booth sponsored by the NCSS Canada Community.
October 19. 2012
Merna Forster, GUMICH Executive Director, presented the workshop “Doing History with History Mysteries” at the annual conference of the British Columbia Social Studies Teachers Association. Throughout the day, teachers could also drop by a GUMICH display of materials and pick up brochures and posters. The conference was held in Vancouver.
October 2012
The October issue of the GUMICH Gazette, featuring news and tips for educators, was emailed to registered users. Be sure to subscribe; you’ll find back issues on the registration page.
September 2012
Climbing the Chilkoot Pass (E.A. Hegg/University of Washington Special Collections
GUMICH released the first of a new series of interactive whiteboards. Garfield Gini-Newman, Professor with the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at OISE (University of Toronto) created an interactive whiteboard for the project. Designed to be used with our popular website Who Discovered Klondike Gold?, our new teaching tool is called “Should I Join the Rush?” Please check it out and send us your feedback.
March 8, 2012
Left to right: Dr. Alan Gordon, Dr. Peter Goddard (Chair, History Dept., University of Guelph), Dr. Gregory Klages. Photographer: Margaret Arent, UGH margaret.arent@guelphhumber.ca.
Dr. Gregory Klages, Research Director for Death on a Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy, presented a special lecture at the University of Guelph-Humber. The talk was sponsored by Academic Services through the Winter 2012 Lecture Series. The topic was CSI Canadian History: The Tom Thomson Tragedy and Other Mysteries.
Spring 2012
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council awarded the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project with a Public Outreach Grant – Digital Economy for the period from March 1, 2012 to February 28, 2013. This grant will enable GUMICH to expand its audience by making more teachers familiar with its products and providing them with additional learning tools that incorporate new technologies. These learning tools will include new MysteryQuests and interactive whiteboards.
