Oh The Mystery.....

This month, we have several themes occurring in the Libratory. One is the theme of mystery. We have a display called "Once Upon a Crime". In this theme is a set of various mysteries for those who enjoy solving crime. The mysteries range from humorous- The "Dead is..." series, to legal based- "Theodore Boone" series, to spy-based "Heist Society" and we also added classics like Agatha Christie's "And then There Were None" and "The Westing Game". So, if you are someone who enjoys sitting down and solving a crime, stop by to visit our display.

In other arenas, 7th Graders in Mrs. Graham and Mr. Mushet's classes spent time learning how to be an ethical researcher. In an earlier post, I talked about gamification and problem-based learning. This week, the teachers and I co-taught a class where we combined problem-based learning and concepts to the idea of being an ethical researcher. We created a crime scene in the Libratory, created eye witness accounts, had suspects, incident reports, crime scene evidence. Students used the lessons about research that we taught and implemented them to solve the murder of our facilities manager, Mr. Bauer.

This week's worth of lessons created great energy and interest. It cemented very difficult and abstract concepts like bias, credibility, corroboration as well as concrete topics such as citing sources, plagiarism, and intended audience. The students learned what those words meant, how they affect research and producing their own work. Then, we applied it to their work to solve the crime. This activity relied heavily on critical thinking. Students learned first-hand how important and prevalant bias was when they started jumping to conclusions based off of one person's statement. It led to a very interesting conversation on how this happens in real life. We talked briefly about how we've had several deathrow inmates released after years in prison because evidence has revealed that they were wrongly convicted. We talked about how we need to be careful as investigative researchers and as crime detectives to make sure we look at all evidence before we make decisions.

We also spent a good deal of time working on citing sources. In the mystery simulation, students were not allowed to just accuse, they had to show five pieces of corroborating evidence from their detective work to prove their accusation of a guilty party. It was great fun and the students could clearly explain how and why these things were important when they researched. The energy and focus of the students and their ability to tie their learning to their research is exciting and inspirational.