Melissa Wiley wrote about the Journey North Mystery Class challenge over at The Bonny Glen yesterday. How is it that I’ve never heard about this project before? It sounds most excellent, and the kids and I are getting involved post haste - the first “task” was scheduled for Monday, so I’m a little behind in starting, but I don’t think it will matter in the end.

So, what is it? I’ll take the liberty of letting Melissa explain:

Journey North has selected ten classes of schoolchildren in cities all around the world. Their locations are kept secret until the big reveal in May. These are the ten “mystery classes,” and the game is to figure out where in the world they are.

You begin by figuring out their latitudes. Each week you compare your own local photoperiod (the amount of time between sunrise and sunset) to the photoperiods of the ten mystery classes. You graph this data on a chart. In just a few weeks’ time you’ll begin to see patterns and get a feel for where some of the mystery classes might be.

Looking at the site is a bit overwhelming, but I think if we take it in pieces it will be tons of fun.