Who Dunnit? A Murder Mystery at HTHCV
Essential Questions
Project Overview
In this interdisciplinary project, students will design, manage and curate a living exhibition that walks visitors through a staged murder mystery. Students will investigate and become experts in ethics, forensics, and pattern analysis to create interactive and scientifically and mathematically accurate crime scenes. Using the perspectives of various social philosophies, they will implement an agreed-upon system of project design and implementation, in whatever way they see most equitable. This will include the communal development of a thoughtful story arc, and the systems of leadership and accountability within committees. Students will also use visual literacy to produce engaging and powerful scenes that engage people to use evidence to attempt to solve the mystery. Each student will play a role in creating and performing the exhibition, as well as curating a space to represent our process over the course of the semester.
Deliverables
Readings
Humanities
Chemistry
Content Schedule
September
Challenge Options
Exhibition is scheduled for Tuesday, December 9th, 2014!
- What tales can dead men tell?
- What are the appropriate roles for mathematical analysis, scientific technology and human judgment in the evaluation of crimes?
Project Overview
In this interdisciplinary project, students will design, manage and curate a living exhibition that walks visitors through a staged murder mystery. Students will investigate and become experts in ethics, forensics, and pattern analysis to create interactive and scientifically and mathematically accurate crime scenes. Using the perspectives of various social philosophies, they will implement an agreed-upon system of project design and implementation, in whatever way they see most equitable. This will include the communal development of a thoughtful story arc, and the systems of leadership and accountability within committees. Students will also use visual literacy to produce engaging and powerful scenes that engage people to use evidence to attempt to solve the mystery. Each student will play a role in creating and performing the exhibition, as well as curating a space to represent our process over the course of the semester.
Deliverables
- Murder mystery panel (by pod)
- Interactive crime scene exhibit
- Crime scene investigation report (individual)
Readings
Humanities
- Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie
- Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Red Mask of Death, Edgar Allan Poe
Chemistry
- The Poisoner’s Handbook, Deborah Blum
- Selections from ChemMatters magazine
Content Schedule
September
- Humanities: Social Philosophy and Ethics, Mysteries and Script Writing
- Chemistry: Periodic Table, Poisons and Toxins
- Math: Shapes and Similarity
- Humanities: Investigation and Deduction, Visual Literacy, Curation and Design
- Chemistry: Chemical Identification, Forensic Chemistry
- Math: Similarity and Trigonometry, Using Math to Analyze Data
- Humanities: Exhibition Construction, Performance Roles
- Chemistry: Evidence Analysis, Brain Chemistry
- Math: Trigonometry, Using Math to Analyze Data
- Forensic Science Technician
- Crime Scene Photographer
- Chula Vista Police Officer
- More opportunities TBD
Challenge Options
- The Inheritor’s Powder: A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science, Sandra Hempel
- Elements of Murder: A History of Poison, Harold McGee
- Stiff, Mary Roach
- Graphic design & copywriting for process panels
- Additional Sherlock Holmes stories, seminars
- See Aliza, Laszlo, and Caroline!
Exhibition is scheduled for Tuesday, December 9th, 2014!