Solve the Case of the Cooling Corpse With Exponentials!

This is by far the most popular lesson I teach to my high school students. 

The first class will first teach the basics of writing exponential functions through two points, as well the more general skill of using math to solve problems in context. Once the groundwork has been set, we will use it in a very engaging problem the second class. The math in the class is realistic to what would be used in an actual crime scene investigation!

In the second class, we will read a short play, called "The Case of the Cooling Corpse," where one character is killed. We then search the text for clues, and create a mathematical model of the victim's body temperature, and work backwards to solve for the time of death, which allows us to identify the killer.

Students from five years ago have told me they still remember this lesson and it really made math come alive for them.