Week 4

This week, our future detectives got into groups of two and visited different stations.  Each station provided evidence and the means to make conclusions based on that evidence.  They smelled different perfumes and colognes to figure out which one was on our torn up rag found at the scene of the crime.  They reviewed the fingerprints found on glasses and matched them up with our suspects.  They did a small chromatography lesson finding out if a suspects pen matched a brown smear found at the crime scene.  Also reviewed DNA samples to see which one our hair matched.  Lastly Teacher Kim helped them burn our yarn samples, they reviewed how they burn and what the ash looked liked. I know they had a blast writing down their findings, next week we will have five new stations and we will try to see if everyone came to the same conclusions.

Week 3

This week we introduced the characters in our mystery.  Such names like Gene Poule and Alfredo Fettuccine elicited many laughs.  Teacher Cindy read the background story of our victim, then several of our future detectives volunteered to read the statements issued by our different suspects.  Next, teacher Kim helped create our clue board.  Each suspect's photo was placed up and we wrote our different pieces of evidence, then placed them under who we believed those put suspicion on. I can't believe the connections they have made between clues and statements, such smart students.  We keep reviewing what inference and observations are, and whether we are guessing or using the evidence to prove our postulations. 

Week 1 and 2

For week one we discussed what being a detective is and what makes a good one.  We mentioned books we have read that have mysteries and clues. The kids paired off into teams of two to practice their observation skills.  Each person changed five things about their appearance (removed necklace, untied a shoe, tied coat around waist, etc.), when we turned around we had to try to remember what our partner looked like and what changed.  Next, in the discussion of using our "owl eyes" Teacher Shannon came in and sprayed "Sargent" Cindy in the face with a water bottle! Oh, the horror!! Our future detectives had to work on a composite of our perpetrator and remember what she was wearing.  Some things were spot on and in other ways we will have to practice our observation skills over the semester. We then discussed using our "owl eyes" (peripheral vision) to always be aware of our surroundings and being observant.  We then finished off with several games of telephone, lots of giggles ensued as we passed along words or phrases from ear to ear.  We mentioned the importance of having first hand accounts and how information can get distorted or changed when passed along.

Week two, our future detectives came into a full blown crime scene.  Here we looked (but didn't touch) the scene that we came upon.  It was stressed that the only information we have is that the crime occurred on a patio of a two bedroom, one bath, beach house, on a warm day.  We talked about observation vs. inferences, which will be an underlying theme as we dissect our clues and crime scene. We split up into four teams and sectioned off our crime scene into four parts.  Each team drew their crime scene, then was able to touch and inspect each clue in detail.  Lots of assumptions were made, the kids had a ton of fun trying to figure out who was involved.  I can't wait until we introduce our suspects next week.