Metric Murder Mystery:

Teaching Math and Information Literacy in a

Middle School Media Center

Needs Assessment

For the last several years, 6th grade students scored poorly on metrics and measurement section of CRCT

Teachers confirm that students struggle in this area

Strategies rarely include performance-based but focus on teacher led, direct instruction

Methodology Metric Murder Mystery: math, media literacy,

critical thinking, collaboration with peers, writing

Used the steps of the Big 6 to solve a murder mystery and to answer math problems; also used Cobb Virtual Library databases

Incorporated word problems, conversions, and measuring (areas of weakness identified by assessment and teacher observation)

• PE Teacher, Mr. Kevin Goss, killed at Palmer

• Body found in media center

• As CSIs, students must solve murder

• Placed in CSI Teams and taught Big 6

• Given crime scene photos, current evidence, and suspects: four Palmer teachers in a notebook

• Four labs: Murder Weapons, Water Bottle, Murder Scene, and Shoebox

• Must apply Big 6 steps to each lab in order to solve the murder

Lab #1: Murder Weapons

• Weapon must weigh 48 oz. to have caused deadly blow

• Weighed in pounds• Converted• Had to choose most

logical measurement• Explain choices and

conclusions

Lab #2: Water Bottle• Leaked from

murder scene to media center at rate of 3.7mL per meter

• Find volume • Convert mL to

Liters• Conclude murder

scene

Lab #3: Murder Scene

• Blood found in three places

• Measure distance from body to three places

• Covert meters to kilometers

• Choose most logical

Lab #4: Shoebox

• Surface area of shoebox found

• Area of blue fiber items used to cover box and clean murder scene

• Convert feet to inches

• Draw conclusions

Murderer Identified!

• Used CSI Notebook

• Considered all evidence

• Wrote paragraph naming murderer and evidence to support

Instrumentation

• Pre and Post-Test

• Teacher and Media Specialist Observation

• Student Comments

ResultsQuestion Pre-Test Post-Test Difference

1: Big 6 41/91=45% 23/83= 28% -17%

2: Big 6 30/91=33% 17/83=20% -13%

3: Big 6 18/91= 20% 4/83= 4% -16%

4: Volume 67/91= 74% 60/83=72% -2%

5: Surface Area 64/90= 70% 49/83=59% -11%

6: Word Problem 57/92= 62% 57/83=69% +7%

7: Word Problem 75/92= 82% 49/83=59% -23%

8: Word Problem 77/92= 84% 33/83=40% -44%

9: Conversion N/A N/A N/A

10: Word Problem 47/92= 51% 76/83=92% +41%

11: Measuring 43/92: 47% 51/83=61% +14%

12: Conversions 30/92= 33% 59/83=71% +38%

Table A: Teacher #1 Results: Pre- and Post-Test results represent the number of students answered incorrectly/ number of students tested = percent of students who answered incorrectly.

Results (cont.)Question Pre-Test Post-Test Difference

1: Big 6 37/85=43% 15/75= 20% -23%

2: Big 6 18/85=21% 13/75=17% -4%

3: Big 6 6/85= 7% 4/75= 5% -2%

4: Volume 45/85= 53% 34/75=45% -8%

5: Surface Area 35/85= 41% 15/75=20% -21%

6: Word Problem 32/85= 38% 49/75=65% +27%

7: Word Problem 44/85= 52% 52/75=69% +17%

8: Word Problem 51/85= 60% 24/75=32% -28%

9: Conversion 57/85= 67% 29/75= 39% -28%

10: Word Problem 59/85= 69% 61/75=81% +12%

11: Measuring N/A N/A N/A

12: Conversions 24/67= 36% 35/75=47% +11%

Table B: Teacher #2 Results: Pre- and Post-Test results represent the number of students answered incorrectly/ number of students tested = percent of students who answered incorrectly.

Results (cont.)Question Pre-Test Post-Test Difference

1: Big 6 24/60= 40% 15/60= 25% -15%

2: Big 6 15/60= 25% 9/60= 15% -10%

3: Big 6 14/60= 23% 3/60= 5% -18%

4: Volume 35/60= 58% 22/60= 37% -21%

5: Surface Area 29/60= 48% 9/60= 15% -33%

6: Word Problem 23/60= 38% 44/60= 73% +35%

7: Word Problem 36/60= 60% 41/60= 68% +8%

8: Word Problem 45/60= 75% 22/60= 37% -38%

9: Conversion 45/60= 75% 21/60= 35% -40%

10: Word Problem 44/60= 73% 53/60= 88% +15%

11: Measuring 21/60= 35% 33/60= 55% +20%

12: Conversions 17/60= 28% 36/60= 60% +32%

Table C: Teacher #3 Results: Pre- and Post-Test results represent the number of students answered incorrectly/ number of students tested = percent of students who answered incorrectly.

Results (cont.)

• Question #6: No student work included

• Question #10: Interpreted the problem as one of area instead of perimeter

• Question #11: Majority of answers missed were the half and sixteenth measurements

• Questions #12: Struggle with which direction to move the decimal

Question #13: Big 6

• “You can use the Big 6 in a math problem by identifying the problems, seeing what sources you can use to solve it, finding the information from the sources, using the information and evaluating the answer and then solving the problem.”

• “You can use the Big 6 to solve a math problem. You just follow the six steps. It works because one step tells you to read the problem and another tells you to make sure your answer is reasonable. So if you follow the steps you will have read, answered, and checked the problem.”

Observations

• “Awww, I don’t want to go yet!”

• “Well, I didn’t know what I wanted to be until just now with this lesson, but I want to be a CSI.”

• “This is so much fun!” and “That’s so cool!”

• Comments across the room could be heard, like “I remember in class yesterday and Mrs. Waters was saying…,” and “No, remember, the decimal goes this way…,” and “Let me show you. I took this….”

Teacher Comments

• “Wow! This was great!” Never seen their students so engaged in solving math problems and so intent on making accurate deductions

• One teacher mentioned wanting to do similar activities for other math units

• Another mentioned using the steps of the Big 6 in her class in an effort to help the students solve all math problems

Modified Action Plan

• Shortened amount of time between unit and mystery

• Additional labs to speed completion

• Include problems that address perimeter, 1/16” measurements, more conversions

• Time in media center for post-test

• More performance assessments needed overall

PALMER

Overall, Metric Murder Mystery will return for a second season next year!