Battle Ground Public Schools

Prairie High School teacher draws her students into a ‘murder mystery’

Oct. 26, 2023

The question facing Christina Greene’s biology class at Prairie High School wasn’t so much how Mr. Bones had met his untimely demise. In an effort to discover where and when the crime occurred, Greene decided to think a bit outside the box.

In fact, the first-year teacher decided to think all the way outside the building.

Greene and Mr. Bones, a fake skeleton she purchased online, traveled to various local restaurants, taking photos with the food he was eating. Back in the lab, the students’ job was to use science to identify what was in Mr. Bones’ stomach at the time he met his fate and then determine the last place he might have been. 

“The students are learning the stuff that is in the lesson plan,” Greene said, “but they’re also taking it a little bit further and exploring some things that people actually do in the real world with forensics and investigations.”

Greene’s students say the “murder mystery” added an element of storytelling to their assignment that drew them in and made them eager to figure things out.

“I really wanted to figure out the mystery,”  said Sasha Smirnova, a sophomore. “It made me feel like I was more likely to remember what I learned in this lab.”

“Actually having a story behind it kind of made things ‘click’ a little more,” added Blake Stutzman, a freshman.

Christina Greene (foreground) poses with Mr. Bones, with fellow teacher Danaka Ross looking on

“I remember talking to my mom and saying, ‘This is either going to be great, or it’s going to crash and burn,’” Greene recalled. “I was kind of worried my students were going to look at me like I had three heads.”

Far from that being the case, Greene’s students expressed appreciation for the extra effort.

“A lot of times assignments are more like ‘do some research and make a presentation,’” said sophomore Duncan Clark. “This is like, ‘we’re investigating a fake murder.’ I thought that sounded pretty cool.”

Students initially worked to test known solutions of biomolecules so they could understand what made a positive or negative result. 

“Then I had them look at the types of food he could have eaten,” Greene said. “They had to look at things like which sort of food might contain more protein, higher fat content, things like that, and then use the results of their testing to figure out where it was most likely he’d last eaten.”

Information like that could be used by investigators to determine the last place someone was seen alive, giving them a location to start asking questions.

Greene said her approach has been to use stories as a way to build relationships with her students and keep them engaged in the learning process.

“They know I’m pretty uncomfortable speaking in public,” Greene said. “If we can have these kinds of relationships, then I don’t feel as nervous and neither do they.”

“It shows a teacher cares,” added Smirnova. “And you feel less afraid to ask questions if you are struggling or you don’t quite understand something.”

So what was the answer?

Using a scientific analysis of Mr. Bones’ partially digested (run through a blender) final meal, students searched for the presence of biomolecules such as carbs, proteins, fatty lipids and more. Noting the absence of any protein, the class was able to conclude the ill-fated skeleton’s final meal was vegetarian pad Thai, eaten at Talay Thai (owned by the parents of a Prairie High School student), giving fictitious investigators a place to start their inquiry into Mr. Bones’ untimely demise.