The Bedfordshire Leading in Learning Group
Mysteries - Murder
The Bedfordshire Leading in Learning Group
Thinking Activity: Mysteries - Murder
Designed by : Kevin Wallis, Debbie Adams, Liz Ross
Teacher’s Notes:
(E.g. suggestions for effective questioning, management of the task, bridging scenarios etc.)
Oral/Mental
Introduce the Mystery making reference to the roles of detectives solving real crimes. ‘You are going to work like detectives to sift through evidence and clues. You are going to have to work through some information to decide whether it’s relevant or not, discover any links, if any, and put together your theories.’
Main Activity
You may wish to use the powerpoint presentation to introduce the activity. Emphasise that pupils will be required to use their reasoning skills and creative thinking skills (slide 2.)
Slides 3 to 9 advance automatically with a soundtrack.
Handout the resources (problem card, strategy cards, map and clue cards) and allow 20 minutes for pupils to start solving the information.
Scotland Yard Investigates (slide 11)
‘An inspector from Scotland Yard is about to visit. He or she wants to find out how you are progressing in the investigation.’
Select one person from each group to be a visiting inspector from Scotland Yard. Put them into the next group and ask them to get answers to the following questions which they will feed back to their own group and use to help them further their own investigation. 5 mins. (slide 12)
o How are you solving the problem?
o How are you working as a team?
o What conclusions have you made so far?
Inspectors return to their groups, feedback their information and continue with the mystery.
Take feedback from different groups to the Scotland Yard questions.
Encourage students to articulate any assumptions they have made and to articulate their reasoning when responding to the third question.
Plenary
Bridging scenario
‘Your brain is like a table top – you put things into groups by comparing and contrasting them, you come up with ideas and check, you focus on one or two things and then have to consider other things. These are the skills you have been developing in this mystery.’
Suggestions for follow up lessons
o Pupils design clue cards of their own (see blank grids) to rule out certain suspects.
o Pupils produce a piece of writing (report) about an individual suspect explaining why this particular suspect did or did not commit murder. The writing should contain accurate mathematical calculations and demonstrate their reasoning and creative thinking skills.
A Murder has been committed at
Castle Pentagon. Lord Mortimer’s body
was found in the Main Hallway of the
Castle at 7pm Saturday 31 October. Scotland Yard have short listed 5 prime suspects and are now seeking the help of a team of Mathematicians to sort out the alibis. YOU are these Mathematicians. Sort out the information; formulate a solution; justify your reasoning. Who did kill Lord Mortimer? You decide.
A Murder has been committed at
Castle Pentagon. Lord Mortimer’s body
was found in the Main Hallway of the
castle at 7pm on Saturday 31 October. Scotland Yard have short listed 5 prime suspects and are now seeking the help of a team of Mathematicians to sort out the alibis. YOU are these Mathematicians. Sort out the information; formulate a solution; justify your reasoning. Who did kill Lord Mortimer? You decide.
STRATEGY CARD 1
There are 5 gates into the grounds of Castle Pentagon – the north gate, the south gate, the east gate, the west gate and the north-east gate. Mark these on your Map of Castle Pentagon.
STRATEGY CARD 2
There are 6 routes, which lead to the 5 entrance gates of Castle Pentagon. The routes are: the Bridleway, the B415, the A7, the dirt track, Hangman’s Footpath and the B666. Work out which route joins to which entrance gate and mark these on your Map of Castle Pentagon.
STRATEGY CARD 3
For each suspect think about the speed, time and distance of their journeys to the castle. Did they have enough time? Could they travel fast enough? Were they too far away?
The Bedfordshire Leading in Learning Group
Mysteries - Murder
The Map of Castle Pentagon
The Bedfordshire Leading in Learning Group
Mysteries - Murder
When the body was found at 7pm it had a temperatureof 30°C. / Given the ambient temperature of 15°C, the body would have cooled at a rate of 2°C per hour. / Normal body temperature is 38°C.
Melissa Killjoy was seen at 2pm riding her bicycle. She was on the bridleway, 5 miles from
the Castle. / The bridleway leads directly to the Castle’s north entrance. / Melissa Killjoy stopped to repair a puncture at around 2:15pm.
It takes approximately 1 hour to cycle 10 miles. / Charlotte Deadworthy was seen on her moped on the B415, 10 miles from
the Castle. / The B415 passes the east entrance to the Castle.
The Castle’s east entrance was blocked between 2:30pm and 2:45pm, as cows were herded for milking. / The average speed of a moped is 30mph. / Charlotte Deadworthy was out on her moped between 2:30pm and 3:30pm.
At 2pm James Dunnit stopped for petrol in his Ferrari at Plotter’s garage on the A7. / Plotter’s garage is approximately 80 miles from Castle Pentagon. / Castle Pentagon’s south entrance is 2 minutes away from the A7.
James Dunnit only had enough money to fill half a tank of petrol. / A Ferrari can easily reach speeds of 110kmph on the A7. / Malcolm Strange was seen ploughing his field in Suspect Village
at around
2:30pm.
A dirt track links the farm at Suspect Village to the west Entrance of Castle Pentagon. / Suspect Village is around 2 miles from the Castle. / The top speed of Malcolm Strange’s tractor is 10mph.
Mr and Mrs Bloodshed are
seen walking
with their dog on Hangman’s Footpath at around 3pm. / Hangman’s Footpath is 2km long and leads to the north-east entrance of Castle Pentagon. / Average walking speed is 1m/s.
Mr and Mrs Bloodshed’s dog is seen at the north-east gate at around 3:15pm. / At 2pm the Macabre Family stop off at the Culprit service station on the M1. / The Culprit service station has a back entrance, which leads onto the B666.
The B666 leads to the Castle’s west entrance, which is 10 miles from Culprit Services. / The Macabre family are towing a caravan. They have a top speed of 50mph. / Mrs Macabre and the children are seen eating in the service station restaurant. Mr Macabre says he was taking a nap in the car.