Spring SAVY 2023: Cracking the Case (Tyson) for Grades 1 & 2
Day 3: Saturday, February 11
Dear Parents,
It was a pleasure to see all of you on Saturday! On our last day, we learned about DNA and how amazing it is–the students had many great questions! Then we decided to see if we could find our own DNA using our saliva. It worked and we saw our DNA!
Then it was time for us to return to the scene of the crime! We found another note from Sarah and discovered that Sarah had not done anything wrong but was just helping clean the laptop. Crime solved!
It was an honor to work with all!
Mrs. Tyson
Day 2: Saturday, February 4
Dear Parents,
Saturday was a really fun day! First, we had a guest speaker, Julia, to teach us about fingerprints and why we use them. Julia is an anthropology major with minors in forensics and archaeology and has worked to recover items at Fort Negley in Nashville, as well as working for the DPAA to recover a WWII crash in France last summer. Julia was part of joint venture with Vanderbilt and MTSU to work on the WWII site, and they are the only schools in the country that get to work on those sites. Her lesson included rich vocabulary, information on how to identify the three main types of fingerprints, and a discussion on how scientists use that information to determine identity.
We then took that information, and the kids were able to identify the types of fingerprints they have. The whorls, arches, and loops are unique to each finger, and even identical twins have different fingerprints! The kid had a great time learning how to take fingerprints and they painted themselves and then identified what types of fingerprints were from the crime scene.
Next, we learned how to dust for fingerprints, and they had so much fun learning how (that is more difficult than it sounds!) and pulling fingerprints off water bottles, handrails, doorknobs, glass, and items in the classroom.
Next week, we will be at the point where we can collect evidence from the scene, and we will also do some acid/base tests and learn about DNA and how that can be used through hair samples and skin samples.
This week has been a great ride and there is more mystery coming this week! We are looking forward to the Open House!
Mrs. Tyson
Day 1: Saturday, January 28
Dear Parents,
Our first day was full of mystery! We found that someone had broken into the SAVY office and stolen a laptop! The first thing one of our friends said was that “we need to work together”! After that, we discussed the most important things to find the guilty party, such as evidence, observations, investigative thinking, clues, suspects, hypotheses, views of the scene crime, interviews, and more! Then it was time for us to visit the crime scene! We had a lot to say as we drew pictures, and we even found a note and a spilled drink!
To learn more about our suspects, we learn about how ink identification (chromatography) can help us find out who is guilty. We tried some of our own and learned a lot using different colors! It was time for us to review the profiles of our four suspects: Sarah, Rachel, Brooke, and Kelly. Our discussions were amazing, and we also talked with our buddies from the other class before we went home for the day. It was a great day!
I can’t wait until next week!
Mrs. Tyson