Intel Education: Designing Effective Projects: Forensics


	Designing Effective Projects: Forensics Critical Thinking Activities

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Deductive Reasoning Activities
Mystery of the Day
Each day, students are given a "Mystery of the Day," short interactive mysteries that present brief crime scenarios with clues to determine who is guilty. Students must find the subtleties in the clues in order to draw connections between the evidence and a suspect. These crime scenes prepare students for focusing on a single problem for an extended period of time. Short mysteries can be found at Kids Mystery Net*

Quizzles
Students also do "Quizzles," which use the problem-solving strategy of deductive reasoning to solve a puzzle. Students are given a set of clues and a clue chart. They use the clue chart to organize the information from the clues and solve the puzzle. Williams, Wayne (1997) . Quizzles. Parsippany, NJ: Dale Seymour Publications.

Thinker Tasks
"Thinker Tasks" are visual analogies that express relationships between objects, and students try to figure out the relationship. For example, students see a triangle and another triangle rotated 90 degrees. They are then shown a heart with four other hearts (one of which is rotated 90 degrees), and they have to choose which heart shows the correct analogy. Holden, Linda (1986). Thinker Tasks, Critical Thinking Activities Book 1: Attributes and Logic. Chicago, IL: Creative Publications.

The Deadly Picnic
Students apply deductive reasoning skills and practice solving a mini-mystery. The Deadly Picnic can be used for this. In this crime, the body of a male victim with a fatal gunshot wound is found, and there are many clues left behind. As it happens, the victim was seeing six women. Students piece together the clues and sort out the information about each woman to solve the murder. Walker, Pam, and Wood, Elaine (1998). Crime Scene Investigations: Real Life Science Labs for Grades 6 -12. West Nyack, NY: The Center for Applied Research in Education.

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