Lost Colony Detectives
Recently, 4th graders have been exploring the Lost Colony of Roanoke. We learned about this history mystery by reading an article describing the establishment of the settlement and the disappearance of the group of colonists. We then webbed the most important ideas that we should know about the history of The Lost Colony.
The fun part came in when we asked, Can we, as detectives, solve the mystery of the Lost Colony by exploring evidence related to their disappearance? Each group of students, or lead detectives and their partners, received a case file. The case file contained theories and evidence that either proved or disproved each theory. Their job was to comb through all of the evidence and determine whether it support the theory or not.
Each piece of evidence that proved a theory was written on a green sticky note. Each piece of evidence that disproved a theory was written on an orange sticky note.
After students had explored all the possible theories, we mapped out the evidence using a tree map. This helped students organize the evidence they found and give them a visual of the stronger and weaker theories.
Finally, students chose the theory they thought was most probable and write a report on what they thought happened based on the most compelling evidence.
And, guess what! They all picked the same theory. :) The best possible theory, with the most evidence to support it, was that the Lost Colonists went to live with the Croatoans. So, I guess we solved it! These detectives are on to the next history mystery!
