1. Arrange students into groups. Each group needs at least ONE person who has a mobile device.
2. If their phone camera doesn't automatically detect and decode QR codes, ask students to
4. Cut them out and place them around your class / school.
1. Give each group a clipboard and a piece of paper so they can write down the decoded questions and their answers to them.
2. Explain to the students that the codes are hidden around the school. Each team will get ONE point for each question they correctly decode and copy down onto their sheet, and a further TWO points if they can then provide the correct answer and write this down underneath the question.
3. Away they go! The winner is the first team to return with the most correct answers in the time available. This could be within a lesson, or during a lunchbreak, or even over several days!
4. A detailed case study in how to set up a successful QR Scavenger Hunt using this tool can be found here.
Question | Answer |
| 1. The Underground Railroad was an actual railroad operating underground with the aim of helping black slaves escape. True or false? Explain. | The Underground Railroad was a network of people, African American as well as white, offering shelter and aid to escaped slaves from the South. It developed as a convergence of several different clandestine efforts. The exact dates of its existence are not known, but it operated from the late 18th century to the Civil War, at which point its efforts continued to undermine the Confederacy in a less-secretive fashion. | 2. Why did many slaves want to go to Canada? How was Canada different from the free states of the North? | The reason many escapees headed for Canada was the Fugitive Slave Acts. The act allowed local governments from the free Northern states to capture and extradite escaped slaves back to their point of origin, and to punish anyone helping the fugitives. Meanwhile, Canada offered blacks the freedom to live where they wanted, sit on juries, run for public office and more, and efforts at extradition had largely failed. Some Underground Railroad operators based themselves in Canada and worked to help the arriving fugitives settle in. | 3. After arriving in South Carolina, Cora takes on a new identity and a new name. What name? What reason forced Cora to assume a fake identity? | While living in South Carolina, Cora assumes the fake identity of a woman named Bessie Carpenter in order to avoid being recognized as a runaway and wanted murderer. | 4. People who hid fugitive slaves were called stationmasters. The ones who guided them along their journey were called agents. However, Whitehead uses another term instead of “agents”. How are they called in the novel? | People known as “conductors” guided the fugitive slaves. Hiding places included private homes, churches and schoolhouses. These were called “stations,” “safe houses,” and “depots.” The people operating them were called “stationmasters.” Most Underground Railroad operators were ordinary people, farmers and business owners, as well as ministers. Some wealthy people were involved, such as Gerrit Smith, a millionaire who twice ran for president. In 1841, Smith purchased an entire family of slaves from Kentucky and set them free. | 5. What did Arnold Ridgeway do for a living? What was he? | People who captured escaped slaves were called slave catchers. In the deep South, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 made capturing escaped slaves a lucrative business, and there were fewer hiding places for them. Fugitive slaves were typically on their own until they got to certain points farther north. The Act also allowed people to punish anyone helping the fugitives. |
The Underground Railroad was an actual railroad operating underground with the aim of helping black slaves escape. True or false? Explain.&choe=UTF-8
Question 1 (of 5)
Why did many slaves want to go to Canada? How was Canada different from the free states of the North?&choe=UTF-8
Question 2 (of 5)
After arriving in South Carolina, Cora takes on a new identity and a new name. What name? What reason forced Cora to assume a fake identity?&choe=UTF-8
Question 3 (of 5)
People who hid fugitive slaves were called stationmasters. The ones who guided them along their journey were called agents. However, Whitehead uses another term instead of “agents”. How are they called in the novel?&choe=UTF-8
Question 4 (of 5)
What did Arnold Ridgeway do for a living? What was he?&choe=UTF-8
Question 5 (of 5)
