Sample of items students saw upon entering their "CSI" Lab.
Did you know that there was a CSI Investigation going on? The week of September 8th the upstairs lab turned into a CSI lab! The goal of this unit was to learn process skills which are part of the scientific method. As the students first walked into the lab they were surprised to see a crime lab laid out before them. The fifth graders saw caution tape surrounding the stations. The students also saw footprints hanging on the white board and fingerprints on the counter. Next to the lip print station, microsopes were used to investigate hair samples. On the other side of the room, there were teeth impressions near the dusting for fingerprints station. The students were divided into groups and they rotated through the 6 evidence stations.
The students were handed a piece of paper with about ten suspects, who were various teachers that work at Chickering School. The students were brought to the lab and compared evidence from the crime scene to samples from suspects. Each student was asked to write a conclusion for each evidence station based on their observations. Then as a class they compared differences and similarities. Following this discussion, they had discovered that there was not one conclusive suspect.
There was a buzz in the fifth grade classrooms because the students were surprised that the evidence was inconclusive.
Thank you to Connor C., Madeline S., Luke T., Sean D., and A.J. R.
Here are some student thoughts about the new CSI Unit.
Thank you to Isabelle W., Zoe O., Hayden S., Annie G., and Isobel M.
Since the CSI Unit was new this year, we decided to ask the fifth grade students if we should keep it or not.
Thank you to Lauren B., Jacquelyn P., Hannah L., Sadie H., and Eric F.
Finally, we asked the teachers the purpose for teaching the new CSI Unit.
Thank you to Ms Varley, Mrs. Lowenstein, Ms Yorston, Ms Dionisio, and Mrs. Chiavarini.
reported by:
Virginia D., Dana R., Winnie M., Alex D., and Adam B.
Nice job on the blog post, it made us excited about the fifth grade CSI science unit next year! We liked that you asked the teachers and some of the students what they thought about the new science unit.
Maybe next time, when you interview you might want to do it in a quiet place. It was hard to focus on the speaker because it was difficult to hear over the backround noise. Congrats, on your fantastic report!
Hey hey guys, I was so impressed with your work! I loved the way you put so much detail into the way you explained the stations.
Keep up the good work!
I really liked how you wrote a report and then did small podcasts instead of writing the evidence. I enjoyed how you explained how the CSI unit worked and how you told how you dusted for fingerprints. I also liked how when you said there was caution tape around the room you took a picture and how you said there was footprints on the board, lip print and hair samples and also finger prints on the counter.