Topics
- Documents
- Images
- Maps
- African American History
- America at War
- Civics & Government
- Civil Rights
- Community & Family
- First Freedoms
- Founding Documents
- Human Enslavement
- Native Peoples
- Symbols & Traditions
- Women in History
Alignments
- Alignment to state and Common Core standards can be found on iCivics.org.
Learning Objectives
The student will be able to:- Follow agreed-upon rules for discussion
- Make observations and ask questions
- Gather evidence and draw conclusions
- Make logical inferences based on text evidence
- Examine primary and secondary source material
- Evaluate the credibility, accuracy, and relevance of a variety of sources
Teacher Experience
- Materials are available as printable PDFs or digitized student handouts available online through iCivics’ FREE Kami integration.
- Available materials include slide shows, handouts for students, embedded lesson plans, and resources for teachers.The slideshows are adaptable to meet your classroom needs.
- Walk through the slide show and Teacher Resources first to acquaint yourself with the development of the mystery.
- We recommend beginning with the "Introduction to Inquiry" mystery for your grade-band as a starting point for students
Student Experience
- Students act as history detectives to solve a mystery by exploring primary and secondary sources with the Private i History Detectives Team.
- All mysteries include a big mystery question, vocabulary, primary sources from the Library of Congress and other repositories, and inquiry activities.
- Students will have the opportunity to activate prior knowledge, investigate, support a claim with evidence, and reflect on content learned.
- Inquiry-based activities allow all students entry points to engage in higher-order thinking.
No account required
