ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL) – In an ordinary classroom at Elizabethton High School, Alex Campbell’s sociology students undergo a transformation from typical learners to adept investigators. This metamorphosis occurs in room 206, a place where the boundaries of education and real-world impact blur remarkably.

For over seven years, Campbell’s students have been engaged in a unique project, assisting law enforcement in solving a decades-old case. Their diligent efforts have helped identify victims and link them to a single perpetrator, a feat that has not gone unnoticed.

These remarkable students are now in the spotlight of a new docuseries titled ‘Murder101,’ which is set to premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival on January 27.

“The story gained significant popularity as a podcast,” explains Alex Campbell. “The docuseries comprises three one-hour episodes. A producer, intrigued by the podcast, reached out to KT Studios, the podcast’s creators, suggesting it should be transformed into a documentary.”

Filming for the docuseries commenced in August of the previous year and concluded in November, capturing the essence of this unique educational journey.

“They had cameras in the ceiling that recorded everything just so they could see what class was like,” Campbell said. “That helped them figure out how they wanted to shoot and approach it, and then they came back and just decided to stay here for about two months. We basically shot every day with a camera crew.”

A former student of Campbell’s, Andrew Barnett, had the chance to help film for the docuseries when camera crews couldn’t make it out to Elizabethton, an experience that helped him discover a passion for camera work.

“[Campbell] has definitely been the greatest teacher I’ve ever had,” he said. “He’s definitely changed my life for the better. This class has changed exactly what I wanted to do with my career, and I don’t know that I could ever repay him for what he’s done for me, especially just this past year.”

Campbell’s sociology class is a hands-on curriculum where students search through articles on age old criminal cases, hear from experienced law enforcement and work together on theories.

“I don’t always use true crime,” Campbell said. “When we do use crime, it’s really around those things of like ‘how do we behave differently in a group versus individual,’ ‘why do some people maybe get more attention when they go missing versus somebody else,’ ‘what makes certain news stories interesting to the media and some not,’ ‘why do certain people get resources and others don’t,’ and then we look at the groups that we create including law enforcement and criminal justice. We really get to learn everything about sociology, we just look at it through the lens of a crime.”

“It’s not worksheets,” said Barnett. “It’s a lot of going online, doing searches through everything. I think I probably searched every website on Google about the girl I had a case on. We also partner groups and a lot of pitching ideas to [Campbell] and him throwing back 20 things we didn’t even look at. It’s definitely a unique experience, more than what you usually get in a normal English or math class.”

Barnett said the class showed him a new perspective, not only on criminal investigations, but life in general.

“It’s really neat because you have a lot more humility when you see someone who has the lives the people that we go to look at,” Barnett said. “It’s really sad to see that there are people out there who have stories like this that will never get heard just because of who they were and the kind of economic situations they were in. I think it teaches you to be a little bit more thankful for what you have.”

Campbell said he’s most excited for his students’ skills and abilities to be showcased at a national film festival.

“What’s interesting is that you actually get to look at the investigators, which are the students, and what impact it’s had on their lives and how it changes them as they grow up and learn about these things,” he said. “They’re the ones that have to create everything. What I really want students to understand is that even though they’re young and maybe they don’t have a degree or maybe they don’t have a ton of experience that they can work hard.”

Campbell’s current students still work on cold cases across Tennessee, communicating findings with law enforcement when findings are relevant.

Campbell said he hopes the docuseries shows an audience what kind of work young people can do.

“I hope people actually see it and think about how school can be different for every student in American,” he said. “How they can be trusted to do real work, how teachers can see people in the community as co-teachers with them, and they can bring them into their classroom, and we can really trust students to do meaningful work to help people.”

The Sundance Film Festival is from Jan. 22 to Feb. 2. ‘Murder101’ will be shown on Jan. 27.