Mark Pullen Murder Mystery – Group work (This is an amended version, however, you will notice that this 'murder' occured well before the digital age. Therfore, the Sources or evidence provided below, that you could use to support your hypothesis of what happened to Mark Pullen, are now very dated. An optional pre-task activity could be to work in groups, and first create the eqivalent types of source evidence you would find carried by a student today.)

After hearing the police report about what was found at the scene of the incident, the students work in groups using the envelope containing the collected evidence, to draw up a hypothesis as to the likely cause of Mark Pullen's death.
You will need to cut out the two pages (photocopies) of evidence from Mark Pullen’s wallet. Then put a set of the wallet contents in each of the envelopes you make up for your groups.

Start out by reading the policeman's report (ideally wearing a hat to put you in character!) and then hand out the instructions worksheet, timeline worksheet and the envelopes of ‘evidence’- one to each group.

The envelopes should contain a copy of contents of Mark's wallet, a copy of the police report, a copy of the map showing where the body was found.

The pupils then piece together a timeline of events in Mark's last day and write this on the ‘Clues Page’ worksheet.
They then complete the brief activities on the instructions worksheet.
They paste both worksheets in their book.
Then the groups present their hypothesis of what happened to Mark Pullen to the class.

This exercise is about the students working with evidence and then constructing a timeline of events, before drawing up a hypothesis using the supporting evidence.