Year Seven Forensics Study

It's now the end of term two and there's still a couple of posts I need to write.  This term has certainly been busy and the year groups have covered a range of science areas.

Year Seven completed a study into Forensic Science.  I was lucky enough to join them on their trip to the National Police College here in Wellington.  We spent a really interesting morning with their education officer who was really well prepared for our visit.  Boys had a go at; fingerprinting, guessing the mystery substance by conducting simple experiments, wearing the new bullet-proof vests, completing a quiz using information from the exhibits within the museum and they had an opportunity to ask lots of questions about real crime and criminals.  It was an excellent and worthwhile trip.

After the trip, classes completed some study within their own classroom and then they came to the science room to try a few of their own forensic experiments.  We learnt about the patterns in fingerprints and how to take a fingerprint.  Then each class played a game of Whodunnit - out of a total of 12 different groups, nine were able to correctly identify the criminal through carefully studying and picking the correct fingerprint. Impressive results!
Another day, classes were organised into groups and this time they looked at fibres and fabrics.  After learning some simple information, each group then got to burn samples of fabric and using a guide, they attempted to identify what sort of fabric each sample was.
The classes also had another activity where they learnt about chromatography and experimented using filter paper and various pens.