Charlotte: In 2016, only 30 percent of science jobs were held by women.

Woman: Because we do enigma missions, the outcomes have been phenomenal. The ability to decode, summarize, and decipher complex information, passion for learning. Once the intrinsic motivation is on board, you can’t stop them.

Student: Do you think it’s going to change in the future?

Barbara: Our vision is really around student voice and student agency. The school’s philosophy is to have lifelong learners and doing enigma missions really gives them the agency to learn whatever it is that they want to learn.

Jennie: Enigma missions are long-term research projects. Children select, of their own accord, where their curiosity has led them to.

Aaron: It starts out as an idea and flourishes into something that involves critical
thinking and deep thinking. I questioned Area 51. Is it an Air Force base in Nevada that was built in the space race period? So this is my second year of research.

Barbara: The process starts with they have to identify what their topic is in a broad sense. We then say, what’s your 10 questions you want to know? Once the child’s ready with their 10 questions, that’s when we have our one-on-one conference.

Barbara: Okay. So you’re telling me what is the definition of equality?

Barbara: And it can’t be a question that I can type into Google. I might have to check a couple links, read a book, ask an expert. If they can tell me the answer already, it’s gone.

Barbara: All your questions in your enigma are focused around Australia. Yeah? What was the country you were telling me about yesterday?

Barbara: Once the 10 questions have been developed, they go through a contract, which is actually six pages.

Aaron: When you sign it, you are committing to a long-term project and you can’t really back out of it.

Charlotte: Once you get the contract, you go off and you research and answer all the questions.

Woman: Our learning day is setup that the students have their own quiet learning time to work on their enigma missions. They can use their home time as well. You’ll find they’re doing it with or without you because it has that intrinsic motivation.

Kim: Through the enigma missions, they are practicing reading, writing, punctuation. It’s always connected to our core curriculum.

Woman: We teach them researching skills, how to use the Web browsers and
search engines appropriately, and how to make a bibliography.

Woman: Enigma missions need to be complemented by some form of presentation.

Charlotte: We just added some pictures.

Woman: The presentations crystalize the core of the content and the student has to master that delivery.

Charlotte: It was my first time presenting and I was a bit a nervous.

Charlotte: Some rights women didn’t have, they couldn’t buy a house under their own name, they could get fired for being pregnant.

Charlotte: So what happened is the kids usually ask questions.

Student: Do women in the school get pedigree?

Charlotte: I don’t know really know.

Aaron: Many people have helped me by asking those deep type of questions and pushed the boundaries of my enigma.

Jennie: Aaron’s enigma has been going for over a year and a half. So thinking caps on. I hope everybody’s ready with lots of questions.

Aaron: So why did the government build Area 51? Area 51 was built to spy on Russia, to–

Aaron: I’ve presented six times. I began to learn how to speak clearly. That also helped my confidence.

Aaron: After the space race period, Area 51 was abandoned, but it was still heavily guarded.

Jennie: So it was the teaching capacity and the ability to be open to audience interrogation that shifts the thinking from surface to deep.

Student: If Area 51 is abandoned, why are people still guarding it?

Aaron: They are still working on military concepts and theoretical weapons.

Jennie: So after they present, we have a one-on-one conferencing conversation and give them feedback. Are you feeling confident? Are you aware of what you have to do? Have you got the right research avenues?

Jennie: From what I’m hearing, as the research is progressing, you’re having a more difficult time verifying truth. Is that–

Aaron: Doing the debrief sessions, Ms. Vine will help you. She’ll use questions that you want to really build on.

Jennie: The relationship between America and Russia, that’s an interesting one.

Aaron: I came away with two new questions that will be taking a new branch in my Area 51 Enigma.

Jennie: All right. So when will we touch base next?

Barbara: So an enigma mission usually ends when they just say, I’ve got nothing left to give. I’ve researched as much as I can.

Jennie: It can be six months. It can be two years. It really depends on the passion of the child. It’s their journey.

Barbara: For a teacher, it’s really cool to see, I can just encourage here, give feedback there, facilitate something, but children own it. This is my research. This is my hard work. It really has inspired them to keep learning.

Schools That Work

Wooranna Park Primary School