Unsolved Mysteries

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Unsolved Mysteries 
Research PROJECT
aka . . . your last and 
final Embedded 
Assessment for the 
year!!!

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Objective 
Product
Objective: 
Pick one unsolved mystery to 
research and build a cold-case 
around. Choose to work alone 
or with one partner. No more 
than two in a group. 
Product: 
After researching, and 
building your cold-case file on 
your topic, you will create 2 
final products that will display 
your research and findings to 
your class.

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WELCOME TO THE UNSOLVED MYSTERIES SOCIETY
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson often drew different conclusions from the same 
clues, the same pieces of information. They then looked for additional evidence to 
prove that something was true.
The process of solving a mystery and the process of writing a research paper have 
several things in common. Both require gathering and studying clues, evidence, and 
information; weeding out "red herrings" or irrelevant information; organizing 
thoughts; and presenting accurate theories and conclusions.
For this Research Project Embedded Assessment, you will have 2 parts:
1.
A typed and printed 1-2 page essay which you will read to the class
2.
A creative product to display your evidence and findings to your class 

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WHERE TO BEGIN
Here's a quick overview to begin your research process:
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Choose to work alone or with one partner
●
Explore the many topics of unsolved mysteries 
(historical, scientific, supernatural, baffling medical 
mysteries, or just down right unexplainable). Find 
one that you feel the most compelled to research 
and learn more about. 
●
Think about- 
What makes it a good unsolved 
mystery anyway? Has it been close to being solved?
Are there good theories out there that support it? 
With the help of technological advances and modern 
technology for the future, could further investigation 
be done to solve this mystery in time? 
Can some 
theories be disproved? How/why....explain?
How 
would solving this mystery benefit the world, people, 
those involved or closely involved, the future, etc?
Now, LET’S EXAMINE “Cracking History’s Cold Cases:
Unsolved Mysteries Research Project” HANDOUT

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Now let’s examine some 
famous unsolved mysteries 
and begin the next step.

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Unsolved Mysteries that would make great Research Topics
BRAINSTORM IDEAS:
★
Medical Mystery- allergic to sunlight
★
The Ghost Ship, the Mary Celeste
★
The Bermuda Triangle
★
The Loch Ness Monster
★
Roswell, New Mexico
★
Stonehenge
★
Area 51
★
Lost Colony of Roanoke
★
The Curse of King Tut

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★
The Legend of King Arthur and the Round Table- Was he a real king or just a 
legend?
★
Medical Mystery- Foreign Accent Syndrome: 
traumatic events in the brain can have other 
unusual effects as well- beginning to speak with a different accent
★
Vampires, Zombies, Chupacabra, Abominable Snowman “Yeti”, Bigfoot
“Sasquatch”- Mythical Creatures born from legend and cultures- 
Did they ever really 
exist?
★
Builders of the Great Pyramids
★
Paranormal sightings
★
Life on other planets- Are aliens real?
★
Mermaids- Real or hoax?

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★
Black Holes
★
Is there a Missing Link?
The story of human evolution is not complete. In addition to hoaxes such 
as “Piltdown Man” and extraordinary finds such as “Lucy,” many puzzles remain. What, in the end, do we 
mean by a “missing link”?
★
Preserved people- expired bodies/mummies that never seem to age or are found 
in perfect condition after centuries, millenia or more.
Are these preservations dependent 
on environment or something else that cannot be explained (bodies found in ice, bog bodies “preserved 
in peat”, bodies found in high altitudes, Egyptian mummies, etc.)
★
Psychic Abilities (ESP)
★
The Shroud of Turin- Is it a hoax or an image of Jesus?
★
The WOW signal: A Message from Space?-
In 1977, the sound of extraterrestrials was heard 
by human ears for the first time. Is this evidence of aliens in space?

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★
How did the Universe begin?
The Big Bang has been the accepted theory for decades but does it 
explain everything? How did life on Earth get started?
★
Easter Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
★
The Legend of Billy the Kid
★
Crop Circles
★
The Lost City of Atlantis
★
The Wolf Girls raised in the wild, by wolves their whole life
★
Million Year Old Screw
- Russian researchers believe the unusual object is 300 million years old, 
leading some people to claim that it may be proof of a highly advanced lost human civilisation, or even 
the work of aliens.
★
The Oak Island Money Pit- (
found in 1795) Is it 
a natural sinkhole, a treasure hunters paradise or 
one of history’s best hoaxes?

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★
Alien Abduction
★
Salem Witch trials
★
Life-after-Death Experiences/Out-of-Body Experiences
★
End of the World predictions
★
Time Travel/Time Slips/Other Dimensions
★
Spontaneous Human Combustion
★
Abraham Lincoln- Was his murder really done by John Wilkes Booth?
★
Illuminati- Does this secret organization really exist?

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★
The Ark of the Covenant
★
The Holy Grail
★
The Fountain of Youth
★
Crystal Skulls-
The legend of the crystal skulls crossover cultures and times. They are contemporarily 
shared by the Mayans, The Aztecs, the Native Americans and other indigenous people around the world.
Do these really exist and what’s their purpose?
★
The Sphinx- 
A creature shrouded in mystery. The body of a lion and the head of a human, with some 
variations. It is a prominent mythological figure in Egyptian, Asian, and Greek mythology. What secrets 
does it hold?

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Find 1-3 possible mysteries that you are interested in, then 
narrow it down to 1:
Consider the following while you brainstorm possible topics-