Planet Science | Whodunit

Planet Science - CSI

Worked out who stole Busted’s guitar? Done the Super-sleuth quiz? Tried out the other DIY detective ideas? And you're still hungry for more…?

Well, apply all the things you’ve learnt and set up your very own whodunit to puzzle your friends!

A room, or an area of a room that can be dressed up as the 'crime scene'.
Some friends to act as detectives.
A notebook (perhaps with a lock).
Various clues - these will depend on the scene you construct.
Yellow paper, scissors, sticky-tape and black marker (to make your own “CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION -- DO NOT CROSS” tape).
... and the ability to think like a criminal master-mind!

You will need to prepare everything very carefully. It's worth keeping a careful note of all the information so nothing gets mixed-up or forgotten.
Your notebook will then have all the information needed to solve the crime in it, so guard it well!
Decide on the dastardly crime to have been committed. Then make up a set of suspects – we used celebrities in the Planet Science Whodunit, but you can have fun making up all sorts of other characters.
Decide “whodunit”, and work out how. Keep all this information in your notebook. Sign and date it so you can prove it's the right answer at the end of the game.
Set a date for the investigation, and invite some friends to act as your detectives.

Next you need to think about the sort of things that a criminal might leave behind, and why. For example, fingerprints - but only if they were careless enough not to wear gloves.
Might something have disturbed them so they’d have dropped something? Was there a record of who went where and when from the security tags of a building – you could provide your detectives with a “printout” from the building’s security.
Read the other Do It Yourself Detective activities. Fingerprints, footprints, fibre investigations, dental impressions and blood splatters are all clues your detectives can investigate without too much complex forensic knowledge or equipment.
Remember, this is a game and your mock-up crime scene must have enough information for your detectives to work out the answer, otherwise it won't be any fun - and you'll be the one getting grief from your mates. (Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to make it tooooo easy for them… everyone likes a challenge!)

Once it’s all worked out, carefully hide your clues and remove any “red herrings” from the area.
... that is, unless you want to be deliberately tricky, in which case keep them in - even add some extra!
Frame it all with some “CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION --- DO NOT CROSS” tape (make this yourself with some yellow paper, sticky-tape and black marker) and open it up to you detectives.

Tell them who the suspects are, and give them any extra information they might need, such as information or objects found outside the crime scene, or profiles of the suspects.
Be on hand to help your detectives in case they get really lost.
Once they think they know who it is, get them to tell you, then open your notebook to the answer you signed and dated at the beginning and let them know if they got it right or not!