加拿大一家网站向学生们提供本国史上一些重大神秘案件的线索，让学生们在好奇了解案件的同时，增加对枯燥历史的学习兴趣。

    据加新社9月4日报道，“加拿大历史上未解之谜”研究小组近日开通了一个名为“加拿大谜团”的网站。中学生和大学生们可以上网了解诸如1734年蒙特利尔大火、1880年安大略省布莱克·唐纳利灭门谋杀案等众多未解之谜，以及一些带有争议的重大历史案件的判决结果。

    同时，每一个神秘案件都附有时间表、地图、历史背景等相关资料，学生们可以看到一些与神秘案件有关且鲜为人知的文件、图片和证据等，利用这些资料对历史案件作出自己的判断。网站同时提供了专家对一些案件的分析，供师生参考。

    加拿大维多利亚大学历史教授兼“加拿大历史上未解之谜”研究小组负责人卢兹表示：“加拿大的历史根本不枯燥，枯燥的是历史学家们。他们没有做到让学生带着兴趣去学习历史，而‘加拿大谜团’网将让学生们甚至全国国民都觉得历史是有意思的。”

    卢兹认为，通过了解历史神秘案件的这一方式，人们除了在好奇之中知道这些案件之外，还学到了历史知识。”卢兹同时表示，尽管有关侦探题材的电视剧现在很流行，但“加拿大谜团”即将列出的6个历史上未解之谜不像电视剧里那样一两个小时就能破解，它们的谜底充满了多种可能，具有讨论性，有的可能永远都无法解开。卢兹说：“我们所以选择这些带有神秘色彩的历史案件，是为了让枯燥的历史与精彩的故事相联系，从而激起大家学习历史的兴趣。”

    卢兹表示，他们计划将在网上总共列出加拿大历史上13个著名的未解之谜，“我们也在寻找更多的谜团，包括当代社会的未解之谜，其中有些是正在调查的热门案件。”

    Few people can resist solving a mystery and when the clues to some of Canada's greatest mysteries are available to students on a website, John Lutz thinks the learning process is almost accidental.

    "Canadian history is not at all boring. It's Canadian historians who are boring," says Lutz, a professor at the University of Victoria and co-director of a project called the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History.

    Lutz believes historians have done a terrible job of conveying the excitement of Canadian history and he believes www.Canadianmysteries.ca will open the door to students to the notion that Canadian history is engaging.

    "And along the way they're having fun, but they're also learning about the key themes of Canadian history," he says.

    Teachers and students in high schools and universities will be able to use the website to sift through evidence about the devastating 1734 Montreal fire, or the 1880 mass murder of the Black Donnelly family in Ontario.

    The website will also challenge the guilty verdict of an aboriginal man convicted of the 1868 murder of William Robinson on Saltspring Island in British Columbia.

    Robinson was black and was one of three blacks killed in the same period who all had what was considered the best property on the island. A jury found the accused, named Tshuanhusset, guilty after just five minutes of deliberation.

    "There's nothing better you can do than to exonerate somebody who's been hanged . . . for a crime," Lutz says. "And that's what students can end up doing on this project."

    While crime scene investigation television is popular, Lutz says the six mysteries soon to be available on the website certainly wouldn't be solved in an hour, and may never be truly solved.

    "We chose them because there's no absolute smoking gun, which makes one answer absolutely right," he says.

    "In all of the case we're careful that there are two or three, or perhaps even more, competing theories, which are, if not equally plausible, at least arguable."

    Lutz says getting students excited about history is one of the main goals, but the site will also teach students to see how historians piece together the story.

    "When we teach this we usually 'Just give the facts ma'am,' we tell students what happened," he says.

    But through the site, the students look at old documents, pictures and historical evidence, then decide what happened.

    Each mystery also has a timeline, maps, historical context and archives allowing the student to come up with their own theory.

    There are interpretations of the crime, but it is password protected for teachers.

    Canadian Heritage, under the Canadian Culture Online program, has funded the three latest mysteries with a $457,000 contribution.

    Lutz says the goal is to have at least 13 mysteries on the website.

    "We're looking for more mysteries, including some fairly contemporary mysteries. So there may be some not so cold cases that we're investigating."