Grade 5 Forensic Scientists

Rubber model of a Brachiosaurus; it's classroom name is Herb.“Where’s Herb!” Is all you heard when you walked into Mrs. Chiavarini’s room. Everyone was frightened, we all wanted Herb back! Whispers filled the air. We had to find Herb, our green Brachiosaurus.

We found a note that the culprit had written, which said “Don’t worry. Herb is in good hands.” It was written in black marker. We didn’t think Herb was in good hands, so we had to find out who took him!

Luckily, Mrs. Chiavarini knew the procedure. We made a list of suspects based on teachers who have been acting suspicious and were still in their classroom during lunch. It was a long list but we narrowed it down to three suspects. The suspects were Mrs. Angelus because she told a student the day before “I’ll be acting suspicious soon.” Mr. Wadness walked in looking and playing with Herb. Miss Varley walked in and said in front of the class, “I like stealing things.”

Mrs. Chiavarini took black markers off the three suspects’ desks. We ran a chromatography test on each of the black markers. Using a coffee filter we drew a line with each marker and dipped the filter in water. We ran the same test with the culprits’ note and the result was … Mrs. Angelus. We kindly asked her if she took Herb and why. Mrs. Angelus explained she was sketching a picture of Herb to help the second graders with their dinosaur projects. She told the class Herb was in good hands and Herb was in Mrs. Mclaughlin’s project room.

Now everyone is very glad that Herb is in safe hands. Cheers filled the room, not one frown on anyone’s face. Once again Forensic Science saves the day!

Do you know what “Forensic Science” is? Well, Chickering 5th graders know.

“Forensic Science is the scientific method of gathering and examining information about the past which is then used in a court of law.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_science 13 Nov 2014]

Atomic A teaches us about Forensic Science

We know this because Mrs. Antinellus [Atomic A],from the Natick Labs, came to our school to teach us about C.S.I. [Crime Scene Investigation].

We wondered what Atomic A likes about her job as a Forensic Science teacher and what is fun about her job. We  asked Atomic A if she had heard of any interesting cases that used Forensic Science to solve them. She said in a ‘hit and run’ accident, they can go back and test the paint on the car that has been left on the other car from being hit. If there is a murder case, the Forensic Scientist uses a blood sample to check DNA, which is compared to a suspect’s’ DNA.

Everybody is having fun Finger Printing

Atomic A likes being an Forensic Science teacher because you can scan blood samples for DNA by a computer. We asked her what her favorite tool was. She likes the DNA test because almost any case can be solved with it. We asked if she always wanted to be a science teacher. She always wanted to be a teacher not necessarily a science teacher. She said she has been a teacher for many years. She was a teacher for 3rd grade, pre-school and ESL [English as a Second Language]. Last we asked her what she liked least about being a Forensic Science teacher. She said her least favorite thing is carrying the heavy supplies to presentations.

All in all we learned that Forensic Science isn’t just science, it’s much more. It’s solving crimes, scanning blood samples, it’s finding crooks, but most importantly, uncovering evidence. Most of all, we think Forensic Science is one of the most appealing jobs in the world.

Reported by: Zach, Kristian and Max

6 thoughts on “Grade 5 Forensic Scientists

  1. The minute you started you got me hooked. It grabbed my attention AND I kept on having questions in my head like: Who took it? or What happened. I also liked how after you explained the story you told WHAT the story was about and why you wrote it. One thing that was really cool was when I watched your video and the back round was really cool and scienc-y. Great Job!

  2. Hi Zach, Kristian and Max

    Phew! I am so relieved to hear we found Herb! And Thank you for your descriptive explanation of the scientific processes you used to deduce the culprit.

    Dr. Reinemann

  3. Dear Zach, Max, Kristian

    We really like the way you described the whole scientific method of Forensic Science. The way you described identifying suspects and running chromatography tests on the black markers using the scientific method of forensic science was very entertaining because of all the information added. However, we all thought that you could put in a pinch more information on what you did with Atomic A. We think this because we read little about the activities you did in the room with her and the class. Otherwise, it was great!

    From
    Matt, Cyrus, and Beck

  4. I like the details of this story! It made me feel envious of all the fun they must of had trying to find the dinosaur! I also fully enjoyed the educational part at the end of the post. I think you could have made an even longer blog post because that seemed to be very short. Apart from that it was a great post. Peter

  5. I really enjoyed reading your post about Forensic Science because of the details you used in the beginning of your piece. You showed how everyone was frightened about Herb vanishing; how ¨whispers filled the air.¨ This helped me understand how you felt about Herb disappearing.

    I have some questions about your piece, though. You mentioned that you wondered what is fun about Atomic A’s job. What is fun about her job?
    You also relayed that you ¨think Forensic Science is one of the most appealing jobs in the world.¨ Why is that? What factors make Forensic Science appealing to you?

    Your post is very entertaining because of the interesting information you wrote about and also how vividly you described the problem. Most people don’t even know what Forensic Science is!

    Anissa

  6. I really liked your music and Animoto especially the pictures with the thumbprints. The only thing I would have changed was to add some pictures of the marker test. You did a really great job. I look forward to reading your next post.

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