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In this middle school math activity, students must analyze five pieces of evidence to eliminate nine of ten suspects. Ideal as an end of topic activity; students need to perform operations with fractions; ratios and decimals and also interpret their results in a different context.
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I really appreciate that this resource could be used successfully as an assessment with a variety of my students. I also see ways that I could adapt it to make it more open ended. Love that it asks kids to justify their answer.
Very easy to differentiate. Engaging. Students were challenged and had fun with this. Some wanted to create a similar activity.
My 7th grade students absolutely loved this activity. It was very challenging for them and completely aligned to my standards. Great for an end-of-year project when they're restless and have already turned in their textbooks for the year.
My students also loved this. We just completed a week of end of grade test and the kids are shutting down. Your CSI activity was a great way to continue lessons and a way for the kids to enjoy leanring. Thank you for the lesson!
Can't wait to try this with my students. I am sure it will be challenge to them, using math in a real-world concept.
This was a whole lot of fun! I used it during the last month of 5th grade and they were so engaged. Thanks!
Some activities don't make sense. Suspects do not need to possess poison ingredients in required ratio to have the capability to make poison. Why are quantities for the marked bills' residue being subtracted?
This is great! Love it for a review exercise and makes it far more fun for the kids! Thanks!
What an excellent lesson! I can't wait to use it with my students. I know they will love it.
I changed some of the material for my seniors and they loved it. It is difficult to find review material that seniors actually enjoy doing. Thanks!
I haven't finished the activity, but are you supposed to be able to eliminate any suspects with the first piece of evidence? All of them have enough of each material to make the poison. [They may have more than enough of each material, but the ratio is still possible with any of those amounts.] If you intended for them to have exactly the ratio listed, that doesn't make much sense. You don't decide not to make cookies because you have an extra egg.
Hands down, best math lesson I have EVER done. Thank you from the bottom of my heart :)
I had a different answer than the ppt indicated from evidence #2. I believe the instructions should say who has the least money, which wouldn't make sense to eliminate them.
Our math was starting to get stale, and we needed something to spice it up. This lesson/activity fit the bill 100%. My colleague next door and I had our students work together in pairs to complete the task. After 45 minutes of some of the best teamwork we have seen so far this year, we went over the results. The students had a BLAST! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
This was a great excercise for my middle school students. They actually look forward to solving the crime. I really appreciate all your hard work.
This looks fantastic! I am planning to use it as a project grade at the end of my ratios and percents unit. Thank you so much. Intensive Math Teacher 6-8
I generally liked this lesson as a math enrichment activity for 6th graders. However, the Evidence 2 worksheet (requiring knowledge of percentages) was too hard for 6th graders, and required your getting all the answers right in order to eliminate two (unlike the other worksheets). I decided early on that I should eliminate Evidence 2 altogether -- especially because students could get the right answer (Suspect 3) without doing it. If I did this activity again, I would probably remove the current Evidence 2 and invent my own. BTW, you should model that on the results page, an X indicates that the person is NOT guilty. It's better to impose this rule than see students haphazardly come up with a way to mark it (and getting confused by doing it inconsistently). If I did this lesson over again, I would probably make my own Evidence 2 sheet covering a different subject area and not requiring them to order the incomes before reaching a conclusion.
Great resource. Some constructive feedback is always good. (See below). For anyone to 1-star this is a disgrace - fantastic resource for higher level year 6s. As for Evidence 2, a well taught lesson on percentages is all you need! Brilliant idea.
Omg! I want to play! I will definitely be adapting this for my high schoolers; thank you!! So fun!
Great creativity, my students will be engaged. I am confused on investigation page #2, why would you eliminate the suspects with the most money, wouldn't it be the least money? It would be nice to have an answer sheet. Thanks!
You would eliminate the suspects with the MOST money because they are least financially motivated to have committed the crime since they have no need for more money. Therefore, suspects with the LEAST money would actually be more financially motivated to commit the crime since they had such a large need for money.
Great resource. can't wait to try it out , good job!
Thank you, my kids are going to gobble this up!
This is an amazing activity and I cant wait to try it with my students!
Awesome lesson, quick question, are the decimals on the Evidence 5 part supposed to be colons? Or are students supposed to actually be calculating decimals of the hour. Thanks!
I have used this activity three years in a row. Very engaging. For those asking for an answer key, solve the problems before starting the lesson and use that as your answer key.
Thank you for sharing. My sixth graders really invested time to solve these problems. I used this as the evaluation for our unit.
The kids loved it!
Does anyone know who suspect 1 and 3 are? They're the only two I don't recognize...
This is an excellent resource based on the topic of number. Pupils have to solve the crime by working out the answer to a set of questions. As they work out the answer, they eliminate potential suspects. This is a fun and engaging way to teach/assess a topic and also gives the pupils a chance to work together and to compete against each other. Thanks for sharing!