Forensic Scientist: Crime Scene Investigation
In this adventure, a group of ten-year-olds are about to have an ice cream and pizza party for having awesome behavior all week! Their pizza and ice cream were delivered in the morning and are being stored in the refrigerator and freezer until lunch. It is now time for lunch and the pizza and ice cream are missing from the refrigerator and freezer! Who took their treats? In this adventure, students will act like a forensic scientist to crack the case.
Click the buttons below to view or download the instructional materials for this adventure.
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My 4th grade students loved solving this mystery!! They did a great job of finding the clues and discovering that the Art teacher did it!!!
Carol Jones
Wylie Preparatory Academy
This might be the most popular activity we have done so far. My students loved solving the mystery and looking for clues.
Jason Weittenhiller
Westview Elementary
Our students at Middlesex Elementary really loved solving this mystery. They really dived into the lesson. My favorite part was watching the students discuss the different reasons as to why the person they picked was the suspect. Great lesson and would definitely use again.
Alexander Galloway, STEM Teacher, Middlesex Elementary
My 4th and 5th graders loved this lesson! I changed up the lesson and had some of the teachers at my school place fingerprints around the crime scene so they could be the suspects. The students LOVED it!!
My students loved this activity. I created a digital Breakout form for the students to complete as we went through the process so they could collaborate digitally. It was so much fun!
I taught this lesson to first graders, but I had fifth-grade helpers. As I walked them to my class, I winked my eyes at the fifth graders so they could play along. Then I said, “Oh no! Something horrible happened!” The first graders had no idea this was all made up. They looked a little scared. Then I told them about the missing pizza and ice cream. A lot of them said, “Oh no!” They really thought I was telling the truth. I told them “You are going to walk into a crime scene, and you will be a forensic scientist and help me solve this crime.” They all screamed, “YEAH!” They were so excited to learn about what a forensic scientist was. When they entered my class, they saw the tape (I bought caution tape from Walmart to pull this off). Then they saw the items in the middle of the room and they drew the picture of the crime scene. My fifth-grade helpers helped the first graders read the clues and write a letter to the principal explaining how they solved the crime. The fifth graders enjoyed pretending. They were also entertained by the first graders who really thought a crime happened in my class. This was fun for everyone.
Wow!!! I was so impressed with the discussions the teams were having reasoning out the clues with the profiles! And given this was done the day before spring break and they were completely focused and enthralled was a total win win!!!!!
My 5th & 6th Grade STEM students at Union Academy really enjoyed this during Remote Learning.
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This lesson looks like a lot of fun. I can’t wait to try it out. I think that it will help them really work on their critical thinking skills.