Detective Story
Activity Summary
The “Detective Story” activity encourages students to use their technical and soft skills to solve a detective case proposed by the teacher. The ‘detective case’ could be a scenario, problem, line of a poem, chemical mixture, short video etc. that is relevant to your topic that your students must explore and discuss.
Activity Plan
1
5 min
Introduction to the activity
Explain to the students:
- the objective of the activity (share the intended learning outcomes).
- the “rules of the game” (students will work in groups and are asked to actively cooperate with all team mates to reach the solution together).
2
5 min
Classroom set-up and group creation
Divide the students into small groups and ask them to arrange tables and chairs so they can work in groups.
3
10 min
The detective story
- Introduce the scenario (tell the detective story).
- Provide a set of clues (clues can be printed and distributed to each group).
→ Some insights:
- In lab: discover the chemical mixture (analyse colour, smell, ph, reactions with other compounds…) -In class: from a small portion of a painting, find out the author (analyse technique, colours…)
4
30 min
Conducting and facilitating the activity
Let students work on solving the case; if necessary provide some new clues and give any required feedback to each group.
5
10 min
Conclusion: wrap-up and common result
Ask each group to report back their results and provide feedback.
Tips & Tricks
- This is a very flexible activity because the detective story can focus on any kind of topic (science, history, art…) that is relevant for the class.
- Preparing a catchy scenario is crucial! The teacher can take advantage of helpful online resources (e.g., video clips, music tracks…). Note that this is an activity that takes some extra effort for the teacher in the preparation of the activity.
- The teacher can prepare a “collection of clues” to share with each group (so that students can freely consult them at any time).
- The teacher should follow each group carefully: the activity is brief and students should be prevented from “getting stuck.” In case students fail and cannot progress, it is wise to provide some additional clues.
- Students should be well prepared on the topic they will investigate. Before the activity, it is good to review together the key points needed to tackle the detective story.