First-year students in Ƶ’s True Crime Casebook: Secrets, Stories and Suspects and Let’s Crack Open a Cold Case courses, part of the Archway Seminar, put their investigative skills to the test during a “Missing Mascot” crime case designed by Matt Flores, assistant professor of education, and Amber Johnson, assistant professor of psychology.
Students worked in teams to interview faculty and staff members serving as suspects and to gather clues to determine what happened to the missing P-Wolf mascot.
“We designed the activity to make investigative thinking tangible and fun by giving students the chance to use their deductive reasoning skills in a real-world context. It also gave first-year students an opportunity to explore campus and meet faculty and staff members,” Johnson said.
The crime case reinforced several of the courses’ learning goals.
“A main goal was for students to learn how to collaborate effectively with others while completing a task and building analytical thinking skills,” Flores said.
The activity emphasized key methods of critical inquiry: how to frame questions, collect and interpret data, and draw well-supported conclusions.
“One of the skills they took away was asking the right questions — for example, looking for motives, means and opportunities,” Flores said.
Students said the activity was exciting and felt like solving a real case, and they enjoyed exploring campus along the way.
“I was surprised by how creative they were in forming theories and analyzing the suspects. The activity inspired a lot of collaboration and energy in our students. They even asked if they could spend more time investigating outside of class,” Johnson said.
Flores said he was impressed by how well the students did in cracking the case.
“There were some clues they didn’t notice, but in the end they were still able to solve the case,” he said.
Faculty and staff who participated appreciated how original the activity was, noting that it energized students and offered an effective, interactive way to apply their skills.
“The faculty and staff suspects were trying to solve the case before the students and figure out which one of them kidnapped the mascot,” Flores said.