Thailand Mystery Skype #7

        We just began our 3rd mystery skype! They answered the call, and they all are 8th grade students wearing school uniforms. The first question that we asked is if they were in the eastern hemisphere, and they are. The 2nd question was were they in Asia, which they are. The 3rd question was if they were not  east Asia, which they are not. After many questions later, we figured out that they aren't land locked, they aren't on an island, so they must be in Thailand! Once we figured this out, we begin asking questions about their culture, and what it is like living there. The weather their is hot. They like to eat spicy foods. Lastly, their favorite sports are badminton. At the very end of the skype one of the students showed us how to dance in Thailand! We will keep you updated with our other skypes!

DEA Skype #6

We are skyping with a DEA agent working in Mexico. In the 1980s, the United States learned that an abundance of illegal drugs were coming from Mexico, so they created the DEA to combat the drug dealing. Marijuana, methane, cocaine, and more drugs are smuggled across the border. To work in the DEA, you need a bachelors degree. There is a lot of risk with the job. This particular man spent 9 years working for the DEA, and 12 years on border patrol. In his opinion, he thinks the wall is a good idea in heavy trafficking areas. One of his scariest experiences was being shot at, and dealing with people with knives. A lot of the deaths come from drug dealers killing other drug dealers. He stays safe by not going in the bad part of town, and having an armored vehicle. He watches his surroundings, and has had a lot of training on how to stay safe. He has a lot of drug dealers in his home city of Ciudad Juarez, in Chihuahua, Mexico. He works to keep drugs out of schools. He enjoys parts of the border patrol, such as helping many people. His favorite flavor ice cream is Cookies and Cream, from Bluebell. In his free time, he hikes, goes to the gym, and watches movies. A piece of advice from him is to keep good friends and don't fall victim to drugs. Working in the DEA gives him different perspectives, and he sees people in all walks of life. He has eaten at the Cattleman Steakhouse. He has also eaten Rattlesnake, and they are "full of bones and taste like chicken". He says drugs are never any good, and they always cause problems.

Australia Mystery Skype #5

Our cartographers and interviewers are ready as we gear up for the second mystery skype, and the fifth overall skype, of the night! After some questions about hemispheres, time of day, etc. we uncovered that they were in Australia! However, Australia is a big continent so we decided to attempt to decipher their city. They discovered our country and state, but it probably didn't help that we had Texas flags in the back! They got it all the way down to us being near Lewisville Lake! We also guessed their city being in Perth, a part of Western Australia. They guessed Downing Middle School, which although was quite offensive to us Longhorns, was scarily close to our actual location! After guessing at a boarding school in Eastern Perth, they were slightly offended which made us laugh, but also told us we were near their location. After some guessing back and forth they figured out that we are Lamar Middle School and that they were a grammar school on the river. This was one of the most anticipation-filled mystery skypes we've done and was lots of fun! Thank you to the teachers we asked a thousand questions to and on to the next skype!

Antarctica Skype #4

We're doing a "surprise" Skype with Antarctica. This Skype was a bit last minute and involved about 2 other groups in the Skype. Briarhill Middle School and Delay Middle School let us join in and learn together. They began by showing us a graph/diagram of something called the "IceCube Lab". They talked about charged particles traveling faster than light in ice! They also said they had just discovered something called "neutrinos". They used a lot of scientific terms which made it a bit confusing. They also said that the sun goes all the way around instead of going up and down! They're not allowed to leave the station for 9 months! Therefore, they have a movie theater, pool table, board games, green screens and musical instruments to keep themselves entertained.This Skype was very educational and entertaining.

Japan #3

    This is our third skype. It is in Japan. Guess what? The people we are skyping is a KINDERGARTEN class.  They are very obendient for a bunch of cute, little kindergarteners. In Japan, it is now Friday at 9:00 am.  It is 6:00 pm on Thursday in Flower Mound, TX.  They all were so exited to talk to us. The teacher is a sub in an international school. That is very cool. Some of them speak Japanesse, and they were so excited.

California Gold Rush Museum Virtual Field Trip! Skype #2

The Gold Rush in California
     Thousands of miners flooding to the golden state in the hopes of getting rich. Gold fields at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains busy day and night. Gold was first discovered in 1848, not the times people usually associate with gold panning. That place used to be a quaint little valley, all sunshine, smiley faces, and rainbows. Then the miners came and it was fire, freshly turned soil and dead stuff, like a little sample of Doomsday. Most of those miners traveled on wagons and on foot, trekking for over 6 months across the land. But most of these money-hungry miners would on average find about an ounce of gold per day. That's still more money than they would have found lying around back home, though.
     Gold panning went a bit like this. First, you put some dirt in your gold pan. Then you get some water in the aforementioned dirt-filled gold pan and slosh it around. Hopefully, once you've poured out the water, some gold remains. However, lots of miners left California broke, for they could not find much gold. Once, a gigantic fire in 1854 burned the an entire town down. Tough people, they began rebuilding very soon after. However, the very same happened again in 1857, and burned it all down again.
   In Columbia, you could only be represented in court if you were white. That very courtroom was the same place people got married. Speaking of multi-purpose buildings, let's talk about the barbers. The Barbershop was the place for haircuts, medicine, and the bathhouse. Disgusting, right? Cleanliness wasn't exactly number one on the priority list.

Mystery Skype Qatar #1 2019!

                  Our first skype of the 2019 skypeathon was a mystery skype! Oops!!! Sorry we woke him up at 1:00 AM! Our interviewers and cartographers are working very hard to figure out where he lives. Questions keep flowing in but we have figured out that he boarders the Indian Ocean and Iran! We guessed Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. Finally, we guessed Qatar!!!! We were right!  Mr.Atef Elbatal is a native Egyptian, but lives in Qatar. Mr.Atef loves chicken and rice dishes and really enjoys the worlds most famous sport - football(soccer).

Today is the day!!!

After weeks of preparation, our Skype team is ecstatic about our event!  We're "visiting" 26 countries including East Timor, Uganda, Venezuela & more! We're participating in 16 Mystery Skypes!  We're going on two virtual field trips, meeting with a DEA agent!  It's going to be amazing!  Follow us on our blog here or on Twitter & Instagram @lamar6cw and follow #lmsworldwide!

Practice Mystery Skype!

This morning, our new 2019 Skypeathon members experienced our first skype! However, there is a challenge because their location is a mystery. It's our job to uncover where they are in the world. We began taking turns asking where each other are trying to figure out each others locations. So far, we know that they are in the northwest hemisphere, they're not not on an island, they're by the Pacific Ocean and they're in North America. We believe that they are in Mexico. Turns out we were right! After thirty minutes of hard work our interviewers and cartographers figured out where they were!!