The scientific method, logical induction, and effective science communication are essential skills for geoscience students. These skills also feature prominently in the True Crime media genre, making this genre a useful analogy for students. Building on this observation, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC)'s Geology program and the Library Studio (UTC's Digital Media Lab) collaborate to implement a True Crime Podcast Project that provides students with an opportunity to practice these skills while building technical competence by learning to use audio technology. The podcast project is implemented in UTC's Petrology class, wherein students learn to use logical induction and the scientific method to describe, identify, and interpret the formation of igneous rocks. Groups of students are tasked with investigating a "mystery rock" using techniques learned in class, then required to produce a two-episode podcast in the True Crime genre documenting their investigation. This format emphasizes narrative, providing students with an opportunity to discuss the choices they made and how their ideas changed as they gathered information. The audio format also encourages students to become comfortable using technical terminology in conversation with peers. Students visit the Library Studio to learn about audio equipment and editing software, and are empowered to produce their own podcasts with the support of Studio personnel. We develop students' technical skills in computer technology and file storage, which are applicable to research documentation, an important employable skill.

True Crime podcasts serve as a fun and relevant way to address outcomes in Scientific Reasoning and Technical Competence. Our presentation will describe the True Crime Podcast Project that we implement at UTC to teach scientific investigation in the field of Petrology. We will share our assignment structure, the best practices that we have identified for this work, and preliminary data from a survey study currently in progress.