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

"Journey to Ancient Greece"

The Muse Program: Ancient Athens

Our class went to the University of Alberta to look at old artifacts from Athens, Egypt, Israel, and the Roman Empire General. There were mainly pottery, vases, arrowheads, and Roman coins. We also got to look at them closely and examine pottery from Israel during the Roman Empire, dating back to over three thousand years ago.

Fun Fact: Romans lined all of their wine-making vases with lead.

We made "Powerful Research Questions" out of "Wonder Questions" about pottery made from Athens. Here are some of the "Wonder Questions" our class had and the "Powerful Research Questions" we developed from the "Wonder Questions":
-How did they make the dye? ->
How did they color it with their limited resources since they were isolated?
-What is this artifact used for? ->
Why would they make it like that?
-Why did they choose to paint it black? ->
How important is it that they painted it black; does it have a meaning; what meaning?
-What was it used for? ->
What status of people used it and what did they use it for?
-What was it used for? ->
How does this artifact relate to the roll women played in society?
-What was it used for? ->
How important was the material it was made of?
-What was it? - >
Who used it, what was it for, and which class of people made it?
-Is it supposed to look like something? ->
Does black and white represent a feeling or say something about Ancient Athens?
-I wonder who made it? ->
How important was role of the person who made this artifact in society, because he made useful things?
-I wonder how old it is? ->
What does its age represent?
-I wonder if they used it for holy water? ->
Did they used it for rituals and normal pottery and how?
-What was the original design? ->
What did the design represent and why put it on a jug?
-How old is it? ->
What time period was it made in, and what important person could have owned it?
-How old was it? ->
How long did they use it, how many times did they use it, how long ago was it made, and how long did it take to make?
-How old is it? ->
What was happening in Greece when it was made?


Our class looked at a collection of artifacts, including ancient coins and vases from the Roman Empire...




We were also able to take a closer look at some artifacts from Israel dating back to more than three thousand years ago...

We were amazed at how long these artifacts survived, and especially how some were still perfectly intact.

By: B & L

Some of the Things We Did...

-There was a discussion about ancient vases in an art studio. We made "wonder" questions about a vase we chose to focus on.

-The class broke into two groups... While one got to look at different artifacts up-close and took magnifying glasses and measured them, the other had a scavenger hunt for ancient artifacts in the museum. Each group had a chance to do both activities.

Some Interesting Things We Learned...

-There was a bust with the head of a man, the bodice of a woman, and a newly manufactured neck. The person sold it altogether to increase market value.

-Athena is Athen's patron goddess.

-In Greek mythology, Athena gave Athens olive trees to ward off Poseidon.

R & K

Birds of Prey

The bird people from the valley zoo came. They came to tell us about raptors….

Some interesting information we learned:

Raptors are birds of prey. Raptors have large, sharp talons for gripping and killing talons. The peregrine falcon cannot use its talons; it can fly up to speeds of 350 km/hour, so if they used their talons in a dive bomb, they could rip right off. Instead it “punches” its prey in the neck with its talons in a fist, which kills it instantly. It then flies down and picks its dead, falling prey out of the air.

There were a few owls and birds brought right into our classroom. One of the owls, a great-horned owl, ate a dead chick head-first. It was less than appetizing!

Some Advice:
If you see a raptor lying on the ground, don’t bring it into your house because it may grow attached to you, and when you let it go, it may go to other humans, because it become too comfortable with humans, and may get shot.

By: A’n’J

The Awesome Terry Fox Assembly

Every class gets their own assembly every year. This year we got the first assembly, the day before the Terry Fox run, so we made it based on Terry Fox. We had 3 people watching TV. They watched a newscast, a weather report, and a game show; all were focused on Terry Fox.

In the newscast, they had “Terry Fox” come in for an interview. They asked him why was he running, what type of cancer he had, how far was he running, and how old was he when he was diagnosed with cancer. Then Terry continued on his run.

On the weather report, they told everyone what to wear, what time it started at, and what the weather was going to be for the Terry Fox run the next day.

On the game show, they asked people from the audience questions based on information from the newscast. There were three hosts and a score keeper. The score keeper gave out prizes to the contestant at the end of the show.

It seemed that the audience had fun because they were involved. We thought we did well so, over all, it was funtastic!

By
H2O

Last week our class had an assembly. My friend and I were weathermen. Another friend of mine was an officer escort for another friend who was Terry Fox. Three girls were game hosts and 2 of my classmates were news people. The day after, people said I did a good job as a weatherman. We all had fun preparing for the assembly. All and all, it was Very FUN!

By: A

The Story of the Mountain Gorillas as told by Mike Cranfield

On Monday, we had a visitor to our class, Michael Cranfield, who spoke to us about mountain gorillas. He spoke to us about mountain gorillas and about the mountain gorilla veterinary Project MGVP. (gorilladoctors.org)

Michael Cranfield talked about how the population of mountain gorillas is decreasing and they are endangered. Some of the issues affecting the gorillas are diseases spread by humans, rats and bats, poaching and illegal hunting, and the issue of gorillas being injured by snare traps meant to capture other bush animals such as antelope and dikar. At the end of the month, snares that are collected in the bush by trackers, local residents, and the doctors are burned in a special ceremony.

When adult gorillas die, sometimes their children are left as orphans. Sometimes the orphans are taken care of by other gorillas in the group, but some are all alone and need special care.

He talked about the issue of deforestation. He also talked about how gorillas can get the same diseases as people, and that visitors to the forrest can be a danger to the gorillas if they are sick and get too close to the gorillas or do not wear their masks. We learned that gorillas have flight distance attacks. I thought it was interesting that gorillas would let people get closer and closer over time (a shorter and shorter flight distance). We also learned that gorillas are closely related to humans.

-A

Making Our Self-Portraits

The Process of Making our Self-Portraits
About two weeks ago our class decided to create self-portraits of ourselves. As artists we had to go through a large number of processes. First we had to fold the paper in to four equal spaces. Next we had to draw a really neat circle with an eraser and then we got to draw a circle with pencil really neat and light. After our teacher Michael taught us how to draw our eyes, nose, and mouth. We had mirrors to draw our hair. After we had to use sharpies to outline the parts that we wanted to so that it would stand out and when we are painting it would be like a coloring page. First we had to go and line up and get our paints. Than we had to get the colors red, orange, yellow and brown to mix our skin color. After we made our skin color we panted our face and neck. After two days later we got to paint our hair eyes and our shirt. Most of us found it was very difficult to get the color of their eyes. Some of us forgot to paint the neck so than we had to re-make the color of their neck, but our necks are usually lighter then our face. The process of doing our face was really hard, but still was not finished because we still had to do our backgrounds. Our instructions for background were to try to fill up all the spaces; you didn’t have to, but we tried to.

Writing by: J & C

OUR SELF-PORTRAITS

About two weeks ago our class decided that we wanted to make self portraits. As young artists, we had to go through a large number of processes. First we had to draw our faces roughly and plan where we wanted everything to go, such as the mouth, nose, eyes, and hair.
We had to learn how to draw the eyes, mouth, and nose after we planned our faces. Then we had to make our faces neater and erase the extra lines. The entire project was to learn about mixing paint, so our teacher taught us how to make skin color out of red, orange, yellow, white, and brown. We mixed it all to make skin color; it was very, very difficult because when you added too much of one color it could make your face look like it was sun burned or even like you had a bad rash. One strategy that I came up with was to dip your paint brush and stroke it against your face to see if the paint was a close enough match.
Once we were done the skin, we drew our eyes and mouths, painted them, and outlined them with sharpie. Then we did the hair, painted it, and outlined them, too. The last step in our portraits was to make our backgrounds; we were not allowed to leave any white in them.

Written by: M

"How Green are Our Feet?" Energy Kickoff!

Today we completed the survey at zerofootprintkids.com to get the class thinking about our new project topic Energy: How Green are Our Feet?

Here are some of our reflections after completing the survey:

“It made me more aware of the environment and what is happening to the earth.”

“It made me realize of the ways that I am not eco friendly and helped me to think of ways to change that (i.e. composting). ”

“It made me aware and think of other things that I could do like composting or living in an apartment. ”

“It opened my eyes about some things that we do in the environment.”

“What we do doesn’t affect just us, it affects everyone.”

“It was hard to evaluate yourself on what you are doing because I had to think about if I had fluorescent lighting or I had to think about what type of washing machine I had. The quiz made me think of things that I would not have normally.”

“It is a waste of time, you should know if you are eco friendly already, you shouldn’t need the quiz to make you more aware, you should already know, but it’s good to know if we are making an impact. ”

“It made me realize how many people don’t notice the impact that they have on the environment, how what we do doesn’t just affect us, it affects everyone.”

“It made you feel that you could do more for the environment.”