Ratios and rates worksheets, unit rate and unit price practice, equivalent ratios and ratio tables for 6th grade are all included in this CSI Mystery Detective. Students use proportional reasoning on five pieces of evidence to work out which cash bag was taken from the bank vault - perfect for math centers, morning work, early finishers, sub days, homework, small-group intervention and test prep review. Completely no prep - just print and go.
A cash bag has gone missing from City Central Bank. The vault door was locked, the alarm never sounded, and the collection sheet has been soaked through. Fifteen bags are listed in the register, and only ratios and rates will say which one is gone.
What's Inside
- Unit price from a crumpled receipt - 12 tape rolls for $64.20, 5 stamps for $46.25 - then ordering the prices from cheapest to most expensive to spell out the clue
- Ratio tables with missing values, found by the scale factor: 7 coins to 4 dollars, 21 coins to how many?
- Comparing rates with different time bases - 54 notes in 3 minutes against 128 notes in 8 minutes - to decide which teller, printer or coin sorter is faster
- Recognizing equivalent ratios from a witness statement - gold to silver coins in the ratio 7:2 - and using the total number of coins to rule bags in or out
- Unit rates, unit prices and scaling a price up through the rooms of the bank floor plan
One case, five clue pages, and a suspect chart that narrows fifteen cash bags down to one. Color and black-and-white versions of every page, and answer keys throughout.
What is a CSI Mystery Detective?
It's a print-and-solve math activity - like an escape room without the locks. Students work through math problems to collect evidence, eliminate suspects, and reveal who did it. It combines real skill practice with critical thinking and a detective hook that keeps the whole class engaged.
When to Use This Resource
- Math centers and rotations
- Morning work and warm-ups
- Early finishers
- Sub days and emergency plans
- Homework and spiral review
- Small-group intervention
- Whole-class ratios and rates review before percents and proportions
- Test prep before state testing
Grade Levels
Designed for 6th graders working on ratios, rates and unit rates, where the whole topic is taught. Also beneficial for 7th graders who need a proportional reasoning refresher before percents and scale drawings, and for advanced 5th graders moving from equivalent fractions to equivalent ratios.
Why Teachers Love CSI Mystery Detective packs
- Zero prep - just print and hand it out
- The pages check themselves - a wrong answer stops the mystery in its tracks, so students go back and find their own mistake before it reaches your marking pile
- The wrong turns are the mistakes students really make - comparing totals instead of rates, adding instead of multiplying to scale a ratio, dividing the wrong way round - so you can see which step slipped
- Ratio practice students actually want to finish, because they want to name the culprit
- Prints clean in black and white
- Works for the whole class, small groups or one student on their own
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