In a forensics class, set up a mock crime scene. Create fingerprints and footprints on the murder weapon, the body and the surrounding area. Have fake blood splattered around the room, and include incriminating evidence in the area. Instruct students to go into the crime scene and gather evidence in a way that follows the procedures of forensic science, such as establishing a chain of evidence and harvesting blood and other evidence in a proper way. Students must use the evidence to figure out who the killer is.
Assign students a particular topic, such as the Boston Massacre, desegregation in schools or the Civil War, and ask them a question about the subject that is either difficult to answer or leads them to interesting side effects of the situation. For example, ask students to find out if the Boston Massacre was really a massacre. Have them investigate the scenario in the library and on the Internet, and present their answers through diagrams, interviews and lectures.
Provide students with a question or a series of questions that require them to use instruments in addition to or instead of the calculator. For example, give them a problem that states, "There are only five convex regular solids. What are their volumes and surface areas"? The students will have to figure out what the solids are before they calculate. Ask them to do research to figure out how a particular formula or theory was formed.
Present younger students with a "whodunit" type mystery, where they must use clues from the story they read to solve the crime. Assign them a particular mystery, such as the case of the Loch Ness monster. They must read handouts that you give them on the topic and then make a presentation or write a paper in which they argue one side of the case. Allow outside research if you wish. The point is for them to learn how to read information and synthesize it into an argument.