Detective work for younger mysteries | Vesa-Pekka Karinen | TEDxOtaniemi

What would you do, if you were hired to be a detective and solve a mystery? Vesa-Pekka found himself in such a situation, along with a bunch of colleagues. They had to solve problems that led them deeper and deeper into an exciting job. There was even a real treasure map! But this time, the journey really was more important than the destination.This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

For the past year

I have been working in a detective agency.

And I'd like to share a story with you

of one case we had
in our detective agency.

Our detective agency has become

one of those agencies that
gets the oldest cases around.

In this case that I am going
to share with you was no exception.

Everything you are about to hear
happen in Helsinski

during the Spring of 2016

It all got started when our boss

sent us a weird short clue from Jyväskylä.

It has only three words in it.

(Image)

[BERTEL LILJEQUIST PAAVALI]

First we were baffled by his message.

What are we supposed
to do with this information?

So we had a meeting,
we sat around

trying to remember anything
related to these three words.

We knew there was a church called Paavali
in Vaakuna, Helsinki,

but that was about it.

Finally, one of my colleagues
blurted out the obvious:

Just put those three words
to the search engine.

And we did that.

And the very first results

Paavalinkirkko in Helsinki

or St Paul's Church in Helsinski.

So what did we do with this information?

We planned our operation.

We checked the route to the church.

We packed all our cool gadgets and gear.

And a little bit of snack and off we went

snooping in the Church.

In the church we met helpful priest.

He was happy to show us around
and answer all our questions.

And during all that conversations
and questions

we managed to find something

that didn't quite seem
to belong to the church.

It was a tiny old wrinkly paper scroll.

And when open up,

seems to be a part of a bigger map.

At this point some of my colleagues
just went crazy.

We never had a case like this before.

All I know

we got three more clues.

similar kinds of clues
that all took us to villages' sights.

The second one

had two words.

(image)

[AHRENBERG NARINKKA]

You know what I am guessing?

This took us to the Helsinki synagogue.

And the third one had even numbers in it.

(Image)

[1862 1868 Gornostajev]

This took us to that beautiful
Uspenskin Katedraali in Helskinski

In both of these places
we found another map.

The fourth clue would have
taken us to Jyväskylä,

The Muslim prayer house.

That was too far for us,

so we ask our boss in Jyväskylä

If she could do the snooping for us.

Luckily she could,

And she managed to find
that fourth missing piece.

When we combined those four pieces,

we found that it formed
a map of Suomenlinna.

This old fortress island
off the coast of Helsinki.

And what is even more exciting,

on the fourth map there was
this big red X-mark

right on the Kuninkaanportti,
the King's Gate there as well.

But at this point

I will let one of my colleagues
tell you what happens next.

(Video)

[ Well, we kind of made the first map.]

[ And then with the help of the map
we went to the King's Gate]

[Then, at the King's Gate,
we found the key from the moat]

[ Who found it?]

[Girl: I did!]

[ Where did you find it from? ]

[From a rock, it was attached to it.]

[ So how did it feel like? ]

[ Exciting ]

[ I remember a little girl
who was quite thrilled.]

[ (Laughter) ]

[ It was exciting, right? ]

[Girl: Yes ]

[ I was really wondering,
where does the key belong to? ]

[ And we never found it out. ]

Yeah.

My colleagues are a little bit younger.

In fact I have a confession to make:

those are my pupils in our pre-school.

I am a pre-school teacher.

And we had a detective agency
called Leopardit or Leopards.

And,

we are three educators and free thinkers.

We had this detective agency running
throughout the school year.

with different kind of cases,

and different kind of
or different learning objectives.

But you might still be wondering why?

What happens to that key we found?

For all of you English speakers,
we found a key, old looking key.

What happened to that key?

What was it for?

Well we took it to the national museum

because it was, looked really old,
to get it evaluated.

We still haven't heard back
from the museum,

but I am sure we will soon.

and maybe the next year's detectives

want to find out what that key opens.

What else there is still to be found.

So,

why did I want to share
this story with you?

We knew that adventure
is a great tool for learning.

And with this exciting narrative running
throughout the school year,

we managed to get a lot of
learning objectives fulfilled.

For example, we met a lot of
new letters, new numbers.

And we even managed to read maps.

We got to know our city better.

And most importantly,

most importantly we got
to know ourself better.

Because we have to remember that preschool
isn't just about academic skills

It's about growing.

It's about learning about yourself,

how to take care of yourself.

Having success in an adventure like we did

builds that confidence.

that inner feeling that you are
going to get through no matter what.

And come that first school day:

with new teachers, new classmates,

new school, new everything.

And with that same confidence

they faced the King's Gate
in Suomenlinna.

Thank you.

(Applause)