This unique app, targeted for teachers but equally effective for home use, provides students with the opportunity to work together using problem solving and organization skills to solve the mystery of who killed King Ted. Students are provided a set of 23 one-sentence clues. They are sequentially led through the process of reading, organizing and making inferences about the information to identify the murderer. Along the way they will need to calculate elapsed time and change in body temperature to solve the mystery. The concept is fantastic and could easily engage students, but the amount of information is simply too much on the small screen. While this app affords a great opportunity to effectively engage students in sequential thinking and problem solving, adults may want to take the time to copy all of the clues on paper or notecards first and let children use easier to read, easier to manipulate paper-based clues in combination with the iPad hints and directions. This strategy will enable students to more easily read and organize the information without the frustration of needing to manipulate so many boxes on a small screen.

• Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
• Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
• Presents educational concepts accurately
• Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
• Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
• Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
• Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

• Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
• Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
• Visually appealing to children in the target age range
• Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
• Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
• Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
• Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

• Has a free or trial version
• Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
• Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
• Student should be able to use independently after first use
• Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
• Multiple users can save a profile
• Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
• Can play without sound and not distract others
• Students can save work between sessions
• Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
• Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
• Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
• Overall - Easy to use

• Abstract Reasoning
• Directions may be confusing for students using independently
• Requires remembering and completing a sequence of visual steps
• Word problems assume additional knowledge (conversion factors, formulas, symbols, etc.)
• Students might need support with navigation
• Anxiety
• Themes that might disturb sensitive students (death, blood, slime)
• Age inappropriate amount of work which could overwhelm or discourage students
• Attention
• Age inappropriate amount of work which could overwhelm or discourage students
• Directions may be confusing for students using independently
• Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
• Requires recall of text information without audio or visual reinforcement
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Fine Motor Skills
• Requires challenging finger movements, motor precision or physical manipulation
• Student will need to copy or write multi-digit math problems
• General Information
• Word problems assume additional knowledge (conversion factors, formulas, symbols, etc.)
• Assumes specific knowledge or vocabulary without "look-up" options
• Numerical Fluency
• Student will need to copy or write multi-digit math problems
• Word problems assume additional knowledge (conversion factors, formulas, symbols, etc.)
• Organization
• Age inappropriate amount of work which could overwhelm or discourage students
• Directions may be confusing for students using independently
• Requires remembering and completing a sequence of visual steps
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Students might need support with navigation
• Reading Basics
• Directions may be confusing for students using independently
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Reading Comprehension
• Directions may be confusing for students using independently
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Reading Fluency
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Verbal Memory
• Requires recall of text information without audio or visual reinforcement
• Word problems assume additional knowledge (conversion factors, formulas, symbols, etc.)
• Assumes specific knowledge or vocabulary without "look-up" options
• Verbal Reasoning
• Directions may be confusing for students using independently
• Assumes specific knowledge or vocabulary without "look-up" options
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Visual Discrimination
• Requires scanning in multiple places for words, objects or numbers
• Words used during activity can be too small or difficult to read
• Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
• Requires recall of text information without audio or visual reinforcement
• Directions are visually difficult to read
• Students might need support with navigation
• Vocabulary
• Directions may be confusing for students using independently
• Assumes specific knowledge or vocabulary without "look-up" options
• Working Memory
• Requires scanning in multiple places for words, objects or numbers
• Directions may be confusing for students using independently
• Requires remembering and completing a sequence of visual steps
• Requires recall of text information without audio or visual reinforcement
• Student will need to copy or write multi-digit math problems
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Students might need support with navigation

Digital Mysteries: Who killed King Ted? is a unique app for 8-11 year olds which allows pairs to work simultaneously on one iPad to help with mathematics. They must discuss and collaborate along the way.

Children are introduced to a fun ‘murder mystery’ in which they must use mathematics skills, and learn new ones, in order to work out ‘whodunit’. They are given 24 slips of information on the story. These include the lead up to finding King Ted and what he was doing before he died. Could it be Princess Prune, Bob the Robber, Lord Leek, or was he even killed at all?

Some examples are how children must work out the time of death by cross-referencing slips mentioning things like what King Ted was watching on TV, body temperature and the map of the kingdom.

Users move through an easy-to-follow, three stage process – they must first read all the slips, organise them into groups, then move to the final stage where they lay out the slips in a chain and use sticky tapes and notes to help make sense of everything. Although the mental arithmetic involved requires precision, the task is open ended and provides scope for pupils to come up with and justify more than one possible solution.

The mystery involves mathematical concepts such as capacity, time, distance and speed, and could be used diagnostically within the mathematics curriculum to assess pupils’ confidence in recognising and applying these concepts.

Key learning objectives might include:

*to practice mental methods in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in order to solve the problem, deciding which operations and methods to use

*to compare and calculate different measures, involving: money, capacity, and distance over time (mph)

After children have finished, they type in their answer then have two possibilities – they can either print or share a colourful PDF of the session with screenshots or even go through the Reflection Stage, which invites them to play back their activity and discuss it with each other/their teacher.

What’s different about Digital Mysteries?

• Truly collaborative: It is unique in that more than one student can interact with it at once

• Record of learning: Students can interact and have fun with exciting technology, then generate a printable PDF report of their session which shows what they’ve done

• Cross-curricular: Mysteries come in various topics plus many are cross-curricular in themselves

• Reflection: Sessions are automatically recorded so students can playback and discuss what they’ve done, emphasising the importance of the process as well as the outcome

• Speaking and listening: Due to its collaborative nature, each session aligns to this learning goal, plus ‘group discussion and interaction’

• Engagement: Working in pairs adds to the fun experience of problem-solving

• Research: We’ve done years of academic research on how to make the most of touch screens for learning in general, and collaboration specifically

What does a mystery consist of?

• Illustrated slips of information: Short snippets to help students with reading

• Open question: To maximise the potential of collaboration, discussion and expression of ideas, the nature of the task is usually open ended

• Extras: Most tasks come with personalised hints for those who need them, e.g. suggestions for organising ideas or simpler stage introductions to ease them in

• Description: This gives teachers the information they need to plan their session including the curriculum point each task links to, the advised age range and possible learning outcomes

How can I try other mysteries?

At the bottom of the app details tab, tap ‘Developer Apps’ to view our current range. There are apps for computing, maths, science, citizenship and Shakespeare plays Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth’s Influences.