ingridscience

Forensics: The Honey Mystery 1 (Hair Analysis)

Summary
Students solve the first step of the Honey Mystery by identifying hair at the scene of a crime. They also analyse real hair, from people and other animals.
Curriculum connection (2005 science topic)
Life Science: Animal Growth and Changes (grade 2)
Life Science: Human Body (grade 5)
Materials
  • 7 (or so) stuffies - but it gets harder to find the right fur colour and species with much more). We used: one Pooh Bear (light brown; also a fur sample) three bears (white; black and brown; dark and light brown), two cats (black which was also the second fur sample; black and white), one blue hippo, one green frog (with a little yellowish-green fur which caused some complications - of course! it's science!)
  • optional: suspect numbers from 1-8, with safety pin to attach to our row of suspects (the eighth to be attached to Pooh if students realise that one of the fur samples could be his - "He stole his own honey!"....but then, where did the black hair come from?)
  • picnic cloth and honey pot for Pooh to be sitting with at the crime scene
Procedure

Lay out the crime scene:
Pooh on his picnic blanket with an empty pot of honey.
7 suspects, with their numbers on, lined up nearby.

Describe the scene:
There has been a crime among the stuffed animals.
Pooh says: “I had my full honey pot with me at my picnic. I must have fallen asleep... when I woke the honey jar was empty.”
Who did it?
7 animals were found near the scene of the crime and are suspects (3 bears, 2 cats, a hippo and a frog).

You will solve the crime over three lessons (Honey Mystery 1, 2 and 3).
Each lesson you will do a different forensic technique collecting more evidence to figure out who stole the honey.

The investigators scoured the crime scene and found some hair samples on the empty honey pot. They put on their gloves, and collected the hair samples in specimen bags.
Today you will do hair analysis to figure out who left their hair on the honey pot, and narrow down the suspects.
You will also look at some real hairs from people and other animals.

Do activities in turn.

Follow this lesson with The Honey Mystery 2 lesson.

Notes

This lesson was originally done with buddy classes at Gordon. Half of each class, along with their buddies did the Hair Analysis activity (Honey Mystery 1), while the other half did the Real Hair Analysis, then they switched.

See second round pics for ingridscience stuffies - needs refining.

Grades taught
Gr K
Gr 1
Gr 4
Gr 5

Hair Analysis with stuffie hair (activity for Honey Mystery 1)

Summary
Students match samples of hair found at a "crime scene" with those of stuffed animals, to narrow down the suspects of a crime.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Life Science: Characteristics of Living Things (grade K)
Life Science: Animal Growth and Changes (grade 2)
Life Science: Human Body (grade 5)
Materials
  • stuffies to get fur from (I used the black cat and Pooh bear
  • small baggies (1"x1" fit in the squares on the worksheet)
  • scissors to cut fur from stuffies, use a tiny piece for each baggie, so it can barely be seen
  • sharpie to write the sample number on the fur bags
  • worsheet (see attachment)
  • small squares of black paper
  • magnifiers
Procedure

Background: There has been a crime among the stuffed animals. Pooh's honey was stolen while he was sleeping. The empty jar was found near him. The investigators collected hair samples from the honey jar and put them in baggies.

Each student is given a worksheet (see attachment), and asked to record the hair colours of each stuffed animal that was found in the vicinity of the crime scene.

Each student is given two baggies, containing hair samples 1 and 2 respectively from the crime scene.
Students hold the samples against white paper and black paper and use a magnifier to determine the colour of each hair. They will need to look closely as there was not much hair recovered from the crime scene.
They tape the baggie next to the recorded hair colour.

By matching the hair samples from the crime scene with the hair colours of each stuffie, students figure out which of the stuffies are still suspects. (The black and brown bear, and also both cats as the brown hair could have been Pooh's.)

Attached documents
hair_analysis_worksheet.pdf
Grades taught
Gr K
Gr 1
Gr 4
Gr 5

Seeds for germination activity

Summary
Mung bean seeds in bulk.
Type of resource
Store
Resource details

Punjab Food Centre, 6635 Main Street/50th Ave (604) 322 5502

Notes

Mung bean seeds are $1.69 per pound. Significantly less than buying in packets from a gardening store. Germination rate is high from seeds bought April 2012.
Mung bean seeds show signs of germination overnight. In a week, they have a long root and a shoot.

Bones and the Skeletal System

Summary
Assemble a deer skeleton as a class, then look at bones from other animals. Use comparative anatomy to understand the human skeleton by looking at the bones of other animals.
Procedure

Assemble the deer skeleton as a class.

Then use parts of the skeleton in bone Stations that students rotate through. Best for older students. See optional worksheet attached.
Stations (choose four):

  • skeleton comparison to find homologous bones in different animals
  • skull comparison in predators and prey animals
  • jaw bones to compare herbivore teeth of different sizes with
  • bone slices to see internal bone structure
  • chicken leg to feel real tendons and see how they are attached to individual muscles
  • leg bones to see how a leg joint works and compare it to the same joint in the deer skeleton

Summarize the function of bones and the skeletal system: Bones are the scaffolding of the body - they give it its shape and structure. Bones protect delicate organs, like the brain and lungs. Muscles attach to bones for movement. Bones make blood cells and store fat and minerals (such as calcium).

Attached documents
Skeletal system worksheet_0.pdf
Grades taught
Gr 4
Gr 5
Gr 6

Leg bone puzzle

Summary
Assemble bones into a leg, or other limb (I have seal hind leg bones).
Materials
  • bones that fit together to make a leg, or other body part
Procedure

Give students the bones and ask them to assemble them into [a leg] with the appropriate amount of guidance.
Compare with equivalent human bones for size and shape.
Look at the different joint types - ball and socket, hinge.

Grades taught
Gr 5

Bubble shapes - square bubble in a cube

Summary
A cube-shaped bubble can be blown inside a pipecleaner frame.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Physical Science: Properties of Objects and Materials (grade K)
Physical Science: Properties of Matter (grade 2)
Physical Science: Materials and Structures (grade 3)
Procedure

A cube-shaped bubble can be made for a demonstration, or by students:
Use pipecleaners to make a cube. Dip in bubble mix. Wet a straw in bubble mix and blow into the centre of the frame, to make a cube-shaped bubble.

Grades taught
Gr 1
Gr 2
Gr 3

Bubble shapes in a tray

Summary
By blowing bubbles on a plate, students make hexagonal and other bubble shapes by blowing many bubbles next to each other.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Physical Science: Properties of Objects and Materials (grade K)
Physical Science: Properties of Matter (grade 2)
Physical Science: Materials and Structures (grade 3)
Materials
  • bubble mix
  • plate for each student or pair
  • straw for each student
Procedure

Pour about 20ml bubble mix onto a plate. Use a straw to blow bubbles in it.
By blowing bubbles next to each other you can make shapes that are not round: hexagons, pentagons and other shapes.
Round is most efficient on their own, but other shapes are more efficient when they are packed together. What shapes can you make?
What do the hexagons remind you of? Honeycomb. Hexagons are a good shape for packing.

Grades taught
Gr K
Gr 1
Gr 2
Gr 3
Gr 5

Bubble art

Summary
Blow paint-coloured bubbles in a tray and make a print on paper.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Physical Science: Properties of Objects and Materials (grade K)
Physical Science: Properties of Matter (grade 2)
Materials
  • Bubble solution (1/2 cup) with tempura paint mixed in (2-5 Tbspns). Test and increase tempura if bubble prints are not coloured enough
  • Tray or stable cup for each student
  • Straw for each student
  • Paper
Procedure

Pour some coloured bubble mix in a tray/cup. A cup will need less mix, but a tray is more stable.
Blow bubbles in the paint/bubble mix with the straw.
Lay the paper over to make a bubble print.
Repeat in another colour paint/bubble mix.

Prompt students with questions to help them observe the bubbles closely if necessary:
What shapes are the bubbles on their own and when next to each other?
What happens to the shapes if a bubble is popped?

Science of bubbles can include:
the shapes of the bubbles (separated and attached) and how they fall into the most stable configuration;
the structure of bubbles - the skin is a layer of water molecules between two layers of detergent molecules, which encloses a pocket of air molecules.

Grades taught
Gr 1
Gr 2

Herbs

Summary
Identify herbs over a matching game, then make a herb necklace.
Curriculum connection (2005 science topic)
Life Science: Plant Growth and Changes (grade 3)
Procedure

Do the activities in order.

Grades taught
Gr K
Gr 1

Sound activities outdoors

Summary
Sound activities most suited to the outdoors, using outdoor materials, being quite loud or needing more space.
Procedure

See the sound lesson for a lesson of sound activities that are suited for indoors (more compact and mostly quieter).

Outdoor lesson:
Introduce the concept of sound with students making their own musical instrument: duck caller.
Help students figure out how the sound is made: the vibration of the string is transmitted to the cup, which vibrates molecules in the air. This vibration of air molecules travels through the air to our eardrum. In our ear the vibration is converted to a nerve signal that is sent to our brain, so we sense the vibration as a sound.
Note: if students are unable to keep their hands off their instrument during later activities, start instead with students making Laah sounds while touching their throat to feel the vibrations in their larynx, and move making the instrument until later.

Use slinky to model how sound vibrations travel: Sound Vibration Model.

Explore the pitch of sound with glockenspiel notes, correlating the length of a key with a note being higher or lower. Also shows that sound is a vibration.

Show on a ukelele or other musical instrument how pitch can be changed by changing the length of a string/tube. Discuss other instruments that students play and how the pitch changes in them.
Sing a class song using the instrument, students accompanying on their duck caller.

With a lot of space, make a string telephone, to explore how the vibrations can travel through string.

With older students, calculate the speed of sound, using a large blank wall.

For walking to or from a lesson in a park, or for younger students on site, the sounds in a box activity is fun.

Notes

other activities that could be added: Doppler effect

Grades taught
Gr 1
Gr 4
Gr 5
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