Solving a murder requires utilization of critical thinking skills that will integrate several science disciplines and flow across the curriculum. Teams investigate evidence from which they must build a logical case to implicate one of several possible suspects. Give students as little direction as possible beyond the original data so they may experience science through discovery. Broken hyoid bones could represent death by strangulation or a murder weapon could be present. Another approach would start with students acting as crime lab personnel who analyze a written crime scene description, construct an assailant profile, then identify the killer.
Groups can work together to share information or compete to identify and investigate suspects.
If groups are at a loss as to how to proceed, you may offer suggestions or refer them to the expert witness folders. This means they must make good use of skeletal material, hair samples, casts or other available data. Teams may be given one warrant for the arrest of their hypothetical killer. This warrant should be signed by the suspect with date and time of arrest noted, then returned to you. When all warrants are issued, the winning team is announced.