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Homicide Investigators!
Five dead bodies are discovered by police patrol officers. A police report providing the locations of the victims is given to the homicide investigators (geometry class). The city mayor and news media are in an uproar. "The culprit(s) must be found now or there could be panic in the streets!" cries the mayor. "Is this the work of one lone assasin or is there a gang of madmen roaming our streets?"
The exact locations (addresses) of each body are plotted on a city map. The investigators, sweating heavily, connect the dots and the skinny guy in the back of the room notices a pattern. "The five locations are five sides of a regular octagon!" exclaims the only one who passed high school geometry.
"If you're so smart, use geometric construction and find the locations of the other twelve possible victims," said the doughnut chomping sargeant.
"An octagon has eight sides you liberal arts major! There are only three more victims," replied the math major. "Let's figure out where they might be and dispatch the patrol officers to check them out."
The patrol officers (teachers) 'radio' back to the investigators whether the locations provided by them are correct. This is the first assessment of the project. If the students, playing investigators, construct the octagon accurately then the addresses would be correct. For each correct address provided, crime scene information and autopsy reports are given to the students.
Medical Examiners
The police need the help of the medical examiners to determine why the victims died. The medical examiners (biology class) will be given the results of the autopsies done on the victims. The autopsies will show that the deaths were caused by various poisons. In addition to the general findings, specific accounts of the condition of the bodies will be offered. From these accounts the students will interpret the reports, using information found on the internet, and determine which type of poison was the probable cause of death for each victim. Unknown to the students, the poisons will all be common household chemicals.
The students will be broken up into teams of 2 or 3 (depending on class size) to do the research. Each group will be given a different victim profile to investigate. As they progress, each student will evaluate and summarize in a journal the various web sites that they visit for future compilation into a class database. This database will eventually be published on the web. The entries will also be beneficial to each group when they write a synthesizing report of their individual investigations. This report will be shared with the teacher and with the rest of the class. The concensus of the class' results will be passed along, via e-mail, to the forensic crime lab (chemistry class) who will use chemical analysis to verify the results of the medical examiner's research.
Assessment for the medical examiners will be confirmation of their selection of poison by the forensic crime lab. If they are incorrect, they must continue their research until their results are confirmed.
Forensic Crime Lab
The students in the crime lab (chemistry class) will review the results of the medical examiners (biology class) and collaboratively determine the suspected poisons to test for each of the murders. The students will be broken up into teams of 3 or 4 (depending on class size). Each group will be assigned a particular victim (or poison) to investigate. The students in each group will: 1) research to determine a test to identify the poison from a sample taken from the crime scene; 2) actually conduct the test to either identify the poison or eliminate it from consideration. Every test result done in the lab must be checked by a peer group for accuracy.
The students will keep a daily log (journal) of their research and test results. After all of the groups have identified the type of poison used on each victim, they will be required to write up a final report of their results and conclusions. They will meet as a large group to debrief and report their results. In addition, the results will be sent, via e-mail, to the police detectives (geometry class) and to the medical examiners (biology class) so that they can "close their files." Finally, the dangers of household chemicals and their safe handling will be discussed. The students will collectively develop a chart listing the safe storage and use of household chemicals. Copies of this chart will be reproduced and given to all of the grade school teachers in the district to post in their rooms.