Kids are doing some sleuthing this summer as they try to parse through a series of clues to figure out “Whodunnit.”

Chelsey Stafford, an enrichment teacher at Sippican School, is leading two sessions of summer classes for grades three to five at Old Rochester Regional’s Summer Adventures In Learning program. With her class “Whodunnit! Thinking Critically to Solve Problems,” kids are studying math, reading, science, forensics and writing to figure out mysteries close to home as well as one from history.

“I thought it would be kind of fun,” said Ella Ferguson, a Marion student.

On Friday, the first of the two sessions wrapped up with kids trying to figure out what happened to the crew of the ship Mary Celeste, a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.

“I love mysteries myself,” said Stafford. “I love trying to figure them out.”

She worked on a few mysteries with students at Sippican School and found that they loved learning about them and through them.

For the first three-week session, kids learned how to take fingerprints and pick up on subtle clues, including the disappearance of their teacher.

Stafford had a teaching conference the second week of the program, but didn’t tell her students. They found out when they got to class.

“We were mad,” said Thomas Berry, who was not too happy to have his teacher disappear without warning.

Stafford did leave the kids some clues as to her whereabouts. The super sleuths made wanted posters to find her and finally cracked the case when they tracked her to the conference in Connecticut.

Thomas, a Mattapoisett student, said he enjoyed the class, especially trying to suss out what happened to the Mary Celeste.

“I like the history about the Mary Celeste,” he said. “I thought they got attacked by pirates.”

As part of the course, the class read through a book on the Mary Celeste, whose crew mysteriously disappeared. Although the pirate theory was indeed popular, it didn’t quite hold water as there was no sign of an attack or struggle on the boat.

Another student offered this theory: “I think maybe mutiny or the crew was sick.”

All the students wrote their ideas in their detective notebooks, where they also kept fingerprints and other evidence. And while they didn’t solve the mystery of the Mary Celeste, kids did gain an appreciation for mysteries while incorporating a variety of subjects.

Said Ella: “I love solving mysteries. I like math a lot and I like writing.”