Murder Mystery

Level: Intermediate and above

Prep: No prep, just learn the procedure

Class Size: Min 8 (7 if you want to play too!)

Time: 1 hour (min)

This is the first of our full lesson activities and can easily be split over multiple lessons if you have the time. Beware, it could take a while!

People to meet, codes to crack, audio files to listen to, documents to read, clues to find, even a 360° crime scene image to explore. All while collaborating with classmates. Your students will be occupied for as long as you want them to be!

Read on below to get an overview of the activity. If you want a deep dive into the whole thing, we have prepared a PDF which you can access by clicking the button "Quick Start Guide" button.

When you're ready, just hit the "Let's Go" button below the crime scene image, or the "QR Code" to show to your class and get them started.

Let's Go

Are you a code breaker?

In the crime scene image, on the bottom row of the book shelf, is a book with the number "53421". This code can be used to identify the killer by name.

Think you can figure out how?

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Be warned. It is not easy.

The activity takes place as a party roll play. It is Halloween and your students are invited to attend the London home of "Howard Ferguson", a successful movie director. Today is his 50th Birthday. Make sure to stress that it is his birthday as this will be useful later.

Each student scans the QR code. This will take them to the character menu.
They will first see a party invitation. Explain that it is a birthday party and they need to click the text below the invitation to accept.
Now they will be presented with a character menu. Assign each student a character, and tell them to click the corresponding link. The first 8 characters are essential. Assign the rest of the characters in the order that they appear in the menu.
Students should hit the name of their assigned character, then read their profile and familiarise themselves with their roles (job, background, and relationships with other characters).
Encourage them to note details they can use in conversations during the mingle phase.
A handful of students will have a photo gallery with their profile, these can be used as talking points during the mingle.

Below you can find information for each character. You can use this as an example, or select different characters from the dropdown list if you wish to read them all.

Once you are ready, move on to "Mingle" above.

Objective: Get students talking to each other in character.

Students now mingle as their characters, discussing their backgrounds and sharing information they find interesting.
Some characters have specific information (for example, Frank Ferguson below) that they must share. Make sure they know that it is important to share it.
Encourage students to remember what they learn from others during this phase, as it will be important later in the investigation.

Note: They will need to crack a passcode later in the lesson. This will be a four digit number relating to a particular character. To focus your class, you may consider highlighting to them that certain numbers and dates may come up again, but this is up to you.

Move on to "Announcement" above.

Now we transition to the announcement.

Once all students have met each other, announce that Howard Ferguson (the host of the party) has been found dead.
Explain that they are now all suspects, and it’s their job to figure out what happened.
Instruct students to click a hidden button on their character profile page. This will reveal to them if they are the murderer or not.

This button is the name of their character. Click the character's name below, then move on to "Investigation" above.

Now students will analyse clues to try and solve the mystery.

Students will group together with other characters (as instructed by the message). They must then click the button labelled "Hide this message and show me the phone!".
They will then have two sources of information to look at together. A phone, and a crime scene image.
There is a lot of information to explore, so you may want to tell them to work together, breaking up reading/listening tasks between them.

Click the "Hide this message and show me the phone!" button in the examples below. Then move on to "Evidence" above.

Students make their final accusations.

Allow time for groups to discuss their theories and form conclusions about who the murderer is.
The class can now mingle again, sharing accusations, explaining who they believe the murderer is and why, using the evidence they have found.
Note that no group has all the information. It will help them to be successful in finding the killer if they share as much information as possible with other groups. The solution is tricky, so encourage them not to settle for their first conclusion.
Once all the evidence has been shared, it is time to take a vote on who they believe killed Howard Ferguson, and why.

Wrap up by discussing the outcome.

Ask students what evidence they found most convincing and whether they suspected the right person.
Highlight any language points that came up during the investigation phase (e.g., new vocabulary or phrases).

If they did not catch the killer, go over the evidence with them and explain exactly who killed Howard and why. The full explanation can be found in the "Quick Start Guide" above.

Crime Scene Image

The image is 360°, so the students can scroll around it in all directions. Ask students to analyse the scene for clues. They may find hidden references (e.g., a note on the wall or objects in the room that could point to the murderer). Some of these are very obscure, and are more for fun in case you want to reveal them at the end of the lesson. Explanations to be found in the "Quick Start Guide" document above.
Let them share their thoughts on what they think the crime scene reveals.

If you have a smart board or projector, you may want to display a super sized crime scene image on the board for the whole class to explore. You can do this by hitting the full screen button on the crime scene image at the top of this page.

Phones

They will first need to crack the passcode. This is not easy, but if they paid attention in the mingle phase, they will have all the information they need. However, you will probably need to help them a little at this point, or you may want to introduce another short mingle phase in order for them to try and get more info. You can find all the passcodes in the "Quick Start Guide" above.
Once they have cracked the code, instruct them to explore messages, emails, voicemails, images, and notes found on the phone.
Encourage them to discuss what they find with each other, noting any suspicious information or motives for murder.

Play around with the examples below. Open the apps, listen to voicemails, read messages and emails, open attachments. This is the kind of thing your students will be going through. Please note, the students will work in groups, so there will only be four different phones. If you want to explore their content, you only need to look through the phones of the first four characters in the list below.

When ready, move on to "Conviction" above.

Phone passcode:

1013

Baby Ray Ferguson

From - The UK

Age - 23

Job - Singer

You are the daughter of Howard Ferguson and Lady Ferguson, the hosts of the party.

You are in a pop band called "Candy" with your brother, Robin, who will also be at the party. Your new album "Sugar" will be released soon, and you want to tell everyone about it. There are some photos of the album for you to show to the other guests at the party.

Secret: You are very, very angry with your father, Howard. He recently sold your favourite horse "Lucky". You have had the horse since you were very young. You will never forgive him. Remember, this is a secret. You must be friendly at the party, do not tell anybody that your horse was sold.

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Students make their final accusations.

Baby Ray Ferguson

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