Summer SAVY 2019: Session 1, Day 5 – Forensic Science (Rising 1st/2nd)
Dear Parents:
Our case took a very surprising turn this morning! Before stepping foot into our own crime scene, we brainstormed advice in how to solve a crime, for a woman who baked homemade chocolate cookies, left them on the warming tray, and came back to find six cookies missing. She said she has three children, ages 2, 4, and 10. Our ideas were flying and we wrapped up our advice giving session and then headed to the crime scene in our classroom to see what might be new.
We were shocked to find another note, but this time, it was an anonymous note with an apology! The team was all abuzz again considering the meaning of this note! As we made our way to the classroom to discuss this new piece of evidence, I shared with the team that a lab specialist had lifted prints at our crime scene and prints had been found, and they were the prints of suspect four! Everyone was talking and wondering how Ms. Mills could have done this, when all of a sudden, in popped Ms. Mills with the missing computer! She apologized to us all and told us that she took the computer mistakenly, thinking it was one of the computers that we hand out to borrow during Summer SAVY. We accepted her apology and revised our case as Closed due to mistaken guilt! Honestly, we were all relieved that Ms. Mills was not a thief!
Then we got a real world perspective on how forensic science helps detectives crack crime cases by using the relationship between the scientific evidence and the suspects in a crime case when our guest speaker arrived to talk to us. We learned so much and we got to make more fingerprints using a higher form of powder that has iron filings in it! This knowledge, combined with the knowledge we received during our five days, made us feel closer and closer to being experts.
Our last forensic science technique that we learned before the end of our session, was how dental impressions can help identify victims. We made our own individual dental impressions using Styrofoam plates. It has been an amazing week of mystery, suspense, trial and error, collaborative working, learning techniques and making great friends! It has been a pleasure to with your students and I look forward to seeing several again in more of my SAVY Summer classes throughout the summer.
Sincerely,
Karen Tyson
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