Weekly Objectives for 12/9/13 - 12/13/13

Overview - The investigative crews are still hard at work cracking the case of the Bannin murder at Ernie's Lunchroom Diner.  The focus has shifted from evidence collection to the process of organizing, analyzing and reporting on their findings.  Detectives will take their evidence and draft a police report to be revised and edited internally by their collective groups.  From this, the investigators will produce a final copy, or police report, to be filed with Chief Barkley.  Upon the completion of this process, the crews will hold a culminating event on Friday.  They will be expected to re-enact the crime scene through the eyes of their research.  Five minutes will be given to each team to sell their theory.  Keep checking for the final results.
    Monday 12/9/13 - Today we were unable to get back to the case due to another assignment.  Students were required to draft a letter thanking our Greek friend for Skyping with us.  Her presentation on Sparta and Athens last week was phenomenal.   The students were fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with someone live from Greece.  As a sign of good will, the students decided that thank yous were in order.  We will be back on the case tomorrow.
    Tuesday 12/10/13 - The detectives have moved to the next phase of their crime scene investigation.  They are now drafting the police reports for the chief.  In their reports they must include: a brief description of the crime scene, a claim stating who the guilty suspect is and support that claim with three pieces of evidence and warrants, a section that rules out all other suspects and evidence to show their innocence, and finally a recommendation of how the suspect should be charged and with what crime.  We are trying to make this as real as possible, so bear with us as we complete the next phase of the investigation.
    Wednesday 12/11/13 - Investigators were expected to hand in their completed rough drafts for inspection.  They were then broken into their teams and swapped papers for the revision process.  Here, the students look over each paper to ensure that all of the objectives have been met.  Constructive criticism is then given and they revise what is needed.  From there, the students will then begin the process of producing the final police report to be filed with the police chief tomorrow.
    Thursday - 12/12/13 - Deadline day for the police reports.  Most of the detectives met the strict deadline and will be rewarded accordingly.  Unfortunately, some of our detectives are struggling to understand that in the "real-world," extra time and second chances are not given.  Moving on from this, the detectives are busy planning their re-enactments of the crime scene at Ernie's Lunchroom.  The objectives for this project are: 1- Must be five minutes in length(max), 2- Must include every member of the team, 3- Must use a narrator to tell the story, 4- Cite all evidence and warrants to explain the case, 5- Use planning and speaking skills to convey the message, and 6- Clearly state their findings/conclusion in an articulate manner.  This is a competition between investigative groups.  May the best group win!!!  The winning group will be posted on the main STEM webpage for all to see.

    Friday - 12/13/13 - Re-enactment day.  After all of the hard work, the detectives are now able to shoot their final project.  No pun intended.  They get to act out the scenario at Ernie's Lunchroom that day.  Will they use a narrative framework, or choose to assign actual acting roles for each position.  Tune in to find out the results.