One of my favorite lessons of all time is the CPM "Who Killed Dr. Dedman" Murder Mystery in Integrated Math 3. So, naturally, I started searching for a murder mystery to do in my AP Calculus class. To my surprise, I couldn't really find one, so I decided to create my own.

After a several months of ruminating what kind of calculus concepts could help solve a murder, a few dark weeks of concocting a storyline, and several very questionable Google searches, I finally created "The Case of Riemannia Summers." I have to say, I'm quite proud of it. I also have to give props to my 2021-2022 AP Calculus students for coming up with so many creative "Calculus Themed" names for the storyline.

To date, this is my proudest creation as a teacher, and I'm extremely excited to share it with others!

Part of the thrill of a Murder Mystery is really getting into character. I started by offering extra credit to students who dressed as a "Detective" which included anything black, police-related, etc. I already had "Police Line" tape (that I bought on Amazon) from a previous Murder Mystery and put it across where students enter the classroom. The first year I, the lead Detective in the case, briefed the team (aka students) on the case using the Slide Deck. The second year I reached out to our school resource officer from Dixon PD for some collaboration and he came in and briefed the class, it was awesome and added another element of drama. I also opened my classroom this second year to any interested teachers/staff so we had a few visitors that were able to jump in and participate in cracking the case!

As for materials, I provided students with both hands on and electronic materials:

• Physical Evidence Envelopes: I had prepped "Evidence Envelopes" (Manilla folders, with "Evidence" printout glued on each, and the printed Evidence Envelope file to put inside) so I passed these out to each team. 

• Electronic Access: Since we already regularly use Google Classroom, I also created a material which included an electronic copy of the Evidence Envelope as well as the Slide Deck in case they wanted to follow along. I posted material to just the Resource Managers of the HINTS further guidance prompts/questions because I wanted one specific group role in charge of these. I also posted the two "Deliverables" as assignments and attached the rubrics there. 

• Materials: To my surprise, the first year, all teams opted for the physical crime board, one team ended up switching over to virtual later, but they all preferred the physical as they investigated. I wasn't prepared for this the first year, so the second year I made sure to provide each team with a poster board, red yarn, post it notes, glue sticks, scissors, and highlighters. Some of these I had in my classroom and what I didn't have I purchased at the dollar store for ~$25.

After the "briefing" I really didn't have to do much, the students really jumped to it on their own. I chose to use the Group Feedback Strategy (which I always do with team assessments) and did take notes on team collaboration. However, I do think the activity was so engaging and team-oriented that I wouldn't say it increased the collaboration, but rather was a way for me to monitor it and have feedback for grades.

I was pleasantly surprised that both years, students experienced what I would consider the perfect amount struggle in cracking the case. I was initially worried that students would figure it out too quickly or without the calculus. Some teams did use the further guidance, but there were a few prompts I kept giving to move students along and to make sure they considered all the elements. The prompts I gave teams to keep them moving along were:

• Do you know the time of death?

• Do you know the location of death? (to prompt finding area under the curve & location)

• Knowing that (info above) are there any inconsistencies in anyone's stories?

•  So you think it might be ___, can we look through the evidence to try to identify a motive? (and I'd sometimes point them to the text convos here if they needed further guidance).

Students were engaged for the full 90 minute block and both years, most teams had cracked the case by the end of the first day. I also gave an additional 50-minute period the following day for students to work on their deliverables or finish cracking the case if they hadn't yet. The first year, this time got a little botched with a rally and students really did need this additional time. I definitely think a minimum of 2 hours/periods total is needed for this project. This year (2023-24) we no longer have block periods and I'm concerned about interrupting teams before they've cracked the case. I'm considering providing 2 50-minute periods and one 40-minute period.

Both years, I got really great Police Reports and pretty good crime boards! (If you email me for the "Private Lesson Plan" I have also included some evidence of student work from the first year). I was able to catch and correct a few typos and errors from the first year (with the help of my students) and I will say the second time around went much smoother!

Both times, I've chosen to do the Murder Mystery at the end of the year after the AP Exam, and it looks like I will have to do the same this year since I'm out on maternity leave from September-February. However, after seeing how engaged students have been, I would really love to find a way to implement it earlier in the year. I think the students could use something fun and engaging earlier in the year and it might give them a better relationship with Calculus in general. The only real Calculus concept used is estimating area under the curve and knowing that distance travelled is the area under the curve of a velocity graph, so it really could be implemented immediately after students explore/learn this concept. 

Overall, it was really cool to see students so engaged for so long. By this time in the year (between the AP test and Finals) a handful of students had already kind of checked out. I thought maybe I'd get a portion of students really into this, but to my surprise, every student in the room was into it! Actually, those that had "checked out" were some of the students who were the most into it.  I would highly recommend!