History Mystery Detective Squad,
Investigating local history

If you have been able to identify an interesting event in your community’s past, you might ask students to become detectives and search for anything they can find about what actually happened. Suggest sources such as attics, library archives containing back issues of newspapers, local history museums, historical societies and interviews with older residents. Ask everyone to bring in one piece of information or piece of evidence and see if the class can recreate the details of the event. Are there any contradictions? What pieces are missing from their account? What more do they need?