These teacher notes are designed to accompany the History Mystery on the Franklin Expedition (which opens up my studies with Year 9 Historians).

The “ActiveHistory Mystery” approach is one which I use with Year 7, 8 and 9 at the beginning of the year. It provides an engaging start to the course, and the outcome is a thoroughly researched, written project that can be used as a baseline assessment.

Because the markscheme stays the same each time, progression is easily measured.

The “History Mysteries” lessons are designed as stand-alone projects which each last 3-4 hours.
Through engaging historical topics, they teach skills of problem formulation, deductive reasoning, independent research, groupwork and structured writing.
There is a standard teacher lesson plan and student record sheet / markscheme for each activity.