The Critical Thinking Co.™ (A Whodunnit Forensic Mystery review)

Generally speaking, I have always enjoyed using materials* from The Critical Thinking Co.™, and I was looking forward to using Something Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha with my Youngest (almost 11) who loves to play cops and robbers/ FBI types of games with his cousins and other family/friends. The description on the website sounded like it might be just up his alley: "Students work individually or in small teams as police detectives to solve this fun and engaging crime mystery. Students begin by learning about different types of forensic evidence such as fingerprints, ballistics, handwriting, and more." 

Unfortunately, in our case the "and more" was something of an issue for my family... fingerprints, ballistics, and handwriting are all fairly innocuous sounding and something that my detective-loving kid would enjoy. However, the description on their webpage doesn't really do a good job of describing the actual book, and it was not at all what I expected. I think I was hoping for a little more advanced "Encyclopedia Brown" type of kid-friendly (burglary and theft?) thing in typical Critical Thinking format, not CSI-style (identifying dead bodies and determining time of death) type of thing that makes us ALL rather queasy~ not really something appropriate for 5th-9th grade, in my honest opinion... and my 17-year-old has no interest either... We truly aren't a CSI -type of family, and there was no mention on the website of the actual type of crime that would be investigated in this book.

That being said, if your family appreciates that sort of crime/drama investigation and conversation, then this book might be a perfect fit for you. It really does show how every clue is intertwined with the others and that each area of an investigation is important. There are forensic evidence lessons in Anthropology, Arson, Ballistics, Counterfeit Money, Death Investigation (Entomology/Autopsy), Document and Handwriting Analysis, and Fingerprints. The lessons in Ballistics, Counterfeit Money, Document and Handwriting analysis and Fingerprints are pieces that I was able to read through without getting nauseous (Yeah, EMT/Doctor/Police material I most definitely am not!), and found them quite interesting, but I wasn't able to do much with them, because of how intertwined they were with the rest of the investigation.

By the way, unlike other Critical Thinking Co.™  titles, this book is NOT one to just hand to your kids and let them go. The first 20 pages are intended only for the instructor and contain background information on the suspects, witnesses and missing persons, as well as summaries of police and forensic reports, witness statements, forensic lab reports, timeline of events, and a general overview of the crimes committed. There are also step-by-step instructions and a checklist for handouts (which are numerous), and answer keys for investigation notes and final reports on the cases being investigated.
Copies of all of the handouts may be made directly from the book or printed from a file that is accessed through a link in the book.

*Previous Reviews for The Critical Thinking Co.™ products:
2010 Balance Benders (Grades 2-6)
2012 Crypto Mindbenders (Grades 3-12+)
2015 Practical Critical Thinking (Grades 9-12)

2016 Sentence Diagramming (Grades 3-12+)
I have purchased and used many other books from them. This has been my only disappointment with this company, and only because it wasn't a good fit for our particular family~ which could have been avoided by a better description on the website.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: The Critical Thinking Co.™
• Product:  Something Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha 
• Ages: 
• Publisher recommendation 5th-12th grade, 
• personal recommendation 10th-12th grade
• Price: $14.99

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Blessings~

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