Creating an interactive science murder mystery game: the optimal experience of flow

Traditional in-class writing assignments often fail to engage students effectively. This problem may be compounded when students are forced into group projects, where a student may rightly feel that he or she could complete the entire assignment more effectively alone than the whole group could working together. In an attempt to alleviate these concerns, I assigned my university science writing class-half Professional Writing majors, half science majors and minors-the creation of an interactive, electronic murder mystery game. The students used PowerPoint to create linked slides in which the clues and cause of death were scientific information. While working on this assignment in class, a number of students forgot the time and kept working long after class was over. Several students reported losing track of time and place when working on the game at home.