Mystery in the 5th Grade Hall

     Windows open. Doors open. Muddy foot prints leading to the computer lab. The Fridge is left open! Where are the Ice cream sandwiches?

     The 5th grade has been doing a project on who stole the ice cream sandwiches to start their C.S.I Unit for science. They went into the lab and got started. Each class took turns in the lab to find the suspect. Each kid in each class had a data bar graph packet, which included instructions and identification of the suspects: all the 5th grade teachers and grade level aids. Each class split up in groups and looked at all the evidence they had and took notes on the data bar graph. The students would match the evidence to the suspect. There were a lot of different types of evidence that involved hair, lips, foot and finger prints, dirt that fell off the suspect’s shoes, and writing samples.  To prepare us for this unit, we spent some time with a forensic scientist, named Dr. Todd.

     We talked to Dr. Todd, who is a professor at M.I.T and is trying to find cures for cancer, small pox, and other diseases, and is trying to cure mice. He loves being a scientist. He’s been working at M.I.T. for about 15 years. He works in a biology lab with microscopes and the cells from these viruses. The toughest part of his job is trying to work with the mice to obtain their DNA. Using microscopes, he checks his progress toward finding a cure for these diseases. His job is something he has wanted to do ever since he was a kid. We were curious about what some of the students enjoyed about this science unit.

We asked students what their favorite category was in CSI, fingerprints, hair samples, lip samples, handwriting, etc. A lot of the students liked fingerprints because it was what real scientists do. Other people liked hair samples because it was really hard to figure out.

We asked the students how they felt when Flynn (our class caterpillar stuffed toy) was stolen. Lots of the kids thought it was mysterious; others were worried about him being missing because he is very well liked.

We asked the students what they thought was the most interesting part in this unit. Some kids thought the thrilling thought of Flynn being stolen was the best part, other kids thought the huge investigation was fun with the fingerprints and the hair samples etc, the rest just liked it all! 

This was obviously a fun and exciting unit!

Reported by Mitchell, Nick, Iona and Sara

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