On the week after Spring break, Mar. 13, Lake Land College (LLC) is hosting a murder mystery event, called the Mystery project. It is going to be available to the Criminal Justice program, some chemistry and lab-based classes and some of the social sciences classes; as well as many high schools around the county. For the students participating through a class, many have assignments within the course content that they will be completing and there will be a Canvas module for those participating to access. This Canvas module will give the students and participants access to weekly updates so the participants can further understand what has happened, possible suspects and who they may need to talk to in order to divulge who the culprit is.

One of the leaders or moreover directors of the project, Tara Blaser, a social science professor at LLC, said that the project is, “a collaborative assignment where faculty work with each other and students work with each other to solve a mystery that Claire [Miller], Tara [Watson] and I have written.” She also when asked what the point of it is, responded, “There is a ton of points to it” and then sent a video that was sent out to local high schools, which stated that the point of it was to give the high schoolers the opportunity to pair up and solve the mystery provided where Lake Land faculty and staff are suspects.” Blaser also stated that, “This is a fun way for students to hone lots of skills, [like] critical thinking skills, they utilize collaborative skills, argument building skills, communication skills… This is like a real-world skill building project.” 

Tara Watson, a composition professor at LLC, expressed that, “We’re really hoping that it is going to be a lot of fun, so instead of having to research some boring subject for a paper [students] get to do this.” They get to solve a murder mystery instead of having to write a paper on some random subject. She said that the project was important for several reasons. She stated, “There is multiple reasons why it’s important starting with one enrollment being down in this area specifically, it is a recruitment thing, getting students to buzz about and is great for student morale.” 

Katie Parish, a Sociology teacher and social science teacher here at Lake Land, and a participant in the mystery project says “I don’t know a lot, that there is a mystery and there are many props that [participants] are being given.” and was very excited for what is to come with the project in March. 

Claire Miller, a chemistry professor at LLC, responded to the question of how much of the scientific method and lab component was going to be a part of the project, stated, “That my class is going to analyze unknown substances and then [her] students are going to give that information to the rest of the participants so that” they can have that information to help solve the crime. 

The mystery project is a campus wide project, and anyone can join in for the fun! Contact Tara Blaser, Tara Watson or Claire Miller at [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected].