Evidence and Investigation

The grade sixes of room 17 (along with room 21 and 24) went to the Bennett Centre to have an adventure of evidence and investigation.

We had a chance to be a pretend detective, forensic scientist and a lawyer. First we observed what we saw in the “crime scene” and memorized what we saw. The teacher went through some rules of being a detective; the one that stood out most to me was that if you saw a glass with something that looked like coke in it, you couldn’t say “I saw a glass with coke in it” you would need to say “I saw a glass with a coke-like substance.”

The story of the crime is there was a guy named Felix Navidad. Nobody really liked Felix; he was rich and never had a job for more than a month. He was throwing a party in his beach house with some of his closest friends, even though they didn’t consider him to be their friend. The only reason Gene, Kendra, Alfredo and Vera came was because Felix told them that they where in his will. During the hour that his friends were there, Felix was murdered.

As a Forensic scientist we did a whole bunch of tests on most of the things left on the crime scene. The grade six’s spilt up into pairs or threesomes. Here is a taste of what some of the stations were:

A Stain Test: we had three strips of paper: one with felt pen, one with food coloring, and another one that could have been either, but we didn’t find out what it was until we took the test.

Litmus Paper Cola test: we dipped a litmus paper in the victims drink to see if it had been meddled with, then we dipped the paper in Alfredo’s drink (Felix’s friend) to see if it was the same as Felix’s. It wasn’t. Felix’s drink had been messed with.

Smell/Scent Test: Another one of the tests we did was identifying a smell. A scent was left on a towel that was found on the scene. On the station, there were small bottles/samples of the suspects cologne. We smelt the towel then opened one of the bottles and smelled the scent inside until we found the one that matched.

Those examples are just some of the fun things we did.

As a lawyer we had to take the evidence that the detective and forensic scientists gave us (everybody was a detective, forensic scientist and a lawyer). We then decided who was guilty. Even though lawyers may have a lead they can never be sure if they’ve got the right person, unless they confess. Even then you would never know if they where lying or telling the truth.

Overall, it seems that everyone thought that the day was fun, yet challenging. If I could do it again, I would definitely do it!

By: MK