Schools

Moorestown Students Solve Mysteries Together

District administrators hosted a daylong Sherlock Holmes-themed learning symposium for gifted and talented elementary students Friday.

Moorestown third-graders became amateur sleuths Friday as part of a learning exercise put on for the district’s gifted and talented students.

District administrators hosted the activity in the for about 30 third-graders from , and  elementary schools. The students had all read the same book: The 100-Year-Old Secret by Tracy Barrett, a Sherlock Holmes-inspired story about two young, mystery-solving kids descended from the great detective.

The students participated in a variety of activities, inspired by the book, that were designed to hone important skills, such as problem-solving, critical observation and deductive reasoning, said Kate Reilly, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

Students also had to identify faculty who were dressed up as characters (a writer, a tech billionaire, etc.), discussed clues and used iPad applications, like the “FBI Field Agent Fingerprinting” app (not really FBI), as part of the daylong event.

Susan Nichols, a gifted and talented teacher at Baker and Roberts, held a makeshift forensics lab with the students where they learned about the “behind the scenes of forensics,” she said. They even got fingerprinted by Officer Bryan Wright and received official Burlington County Sheriff’s Department fingerprint records.

“The purpose is to bring them together for a problem-solving activity,” said Reilly, who explained the idea came out of a discussion with parents of gifted and talented students who expressed a desire to see more group activities.

“(These students) wouldn’t necessarily meet each other until (they got to) the ,” she said. “One of the things about gifted children, forming social connections is very important.”


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