Summit Elementary School student Christian Jackson presents information about Mystery History to Kentucky Department of Education Associate Commissioner David Couch and STLP Statewide Lead Jeff Sebulsky. Photo by Fiona Morgan, Kentucky Department of Education, May 13, 2025
(ASHLAND, KY) – A group of three students at Summit Elementary School (Boyd County) created a website called Mystery History to teach their fellow students about social studies in a fun, engaging way.
The Mystery History website features digital breakout games where players can learn about government and history, figure out clues, answer questions and complete tasks based on what they learn.
Group members Christian Jackson, Jonah Slone and Hunter Mulhearn used Google applications to make the website and the games. They also created videos to introduce each game.
For one game, the group filmed a video where Christian is on screen, saying the president has been taken hostage in the White House bunker. He directs players to use their knowledge of the executive branch to save him.
Players are asked a series of questions and can click on photo links to figure out clues from the photos. The group created five games for the branches of government, founding fathers, executive branch, legislative branch and judicial branch.
At this year’s Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP) State Championship event, Mystery History won Best STLP Project in Kentucky for the K-5 Division.
The Student Technology Leadership Program is run by the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE’s) Office of Education Technology. It uses project-based learning, technology utilization and digital content creation to empower student achievement through vibrant learning experiences.
The championship took place at Lexington’s Rupp Arena on April 23. It featured more than 500 K-12 schools from 107 school districts. Students competed in 20 live challenges, and more than 600 student teams presented their year-long, technology-based projects.
This isn’t the first time Summit Elementary won the STLP State Championship; the school also won Best Grade K-5 project in 2023. Jonah’s older brother, Eli, was on the team that year.
“It felt good to be the second winner in my family,” Jonah said. “You have to have the right teammates and teacher to win twice.”
This year’s group came up with the idea for Mystery History when they learned about the three branches of government in a 4th grade social studies class. Christian said the concepts were difficult for him to grasp at first, but once he understood it, he wanted to help others understand.
“I was like totally lost for the first few classes, so we decided to make the game so (others in the class) weren’t totally lost, and so they had a little prior information to learning about government,” Christian said.
When making the games, he said he learned more about each branch of government and what the Supreme Court can and can’t do. He said he thinks the most engaging part of the project is the fun of seeing if you answered questions correctly.
“We made it so it would be more fun, because if they’re having fun, they’re probably learning more,” Christian said.
Summit Elementary School students Jonah Slone, Christian Jackson and Hunter Mulhearn represented the school at the 2025 International Society for Technology in Education Conference in San Antonio. Photo by Matt Kresslein, Kentucky Department of Education
Mystery History saw huge success as 280 students played the games during the school year.
The group used multiple Google tools such as Google Drive, Docs, Sites, Drawings, Slides and Forms to create the games. They also used Canva to create the Mystery History logo, along with QR codes for the website.
Much of the information and cited sources for the games come from Brittanica Online Encyclopedia, the Kentucky Virtual Library and YouTube videos. Hunter said he learned a lot about technology and the Internet throughout the project.
“I enjoyed working with my friends and learning how to use all the different kinds of technology tools,” he said.
Christian, who wants to be an engineer when he grows up, said figuring out how to use some of the software for the first time was difficult, such as learning how to embed Google Forms, images and hyperlinks into their site. But he enjoyed learning about this technology because it’s what he wants his future career to focus on.
“I know that’s probably going to help later on,” he said.
He also enjoyed writing scripts for the videos because it allowed him to create mini stories. The group filmed the videos against a green screen, then edited the videos and added backgrounds in iMovie.
Christian said he thinks part of why their project was successful is because the team communicated well and all worked hard to do their part.
Group members contributed to each aspect of the project, but each also had their own area of focus. While Christian did more work on the videos, Jonah did more work on the website. Hunter worked with Summit STLP Coach Letitia Rudie to introduce Mystery History to other area schools.
Rudie said they sent the game to teachers in six other schools for their students to try out. Those teachers sent feedback about the game and the group incorporated that feedback into the project.
Christian said he thinks the project did well at STLP because the judges liked how organized it is and how many students participated in playing the games.
David Couch, associate commissioner in the KDE Office of Education Technology, said he was impressed by Christian’s ability to articulate the project well to a group of adults and said it’s a good life skill to have.
“You’re learning great life skills. It’s just not the technology part of (your project), it’s working as a team, with a teammate and figuring out what’s working and what’s not,” Couch said.
The group recently represented Kentucky as special presenters at the 2025 International Society for Technology in Education Conference in San Antonio, which is one of the world’s largest education technology gatherings.
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