Scientific inquiry through forensic science
Purpose
Scientific inquiry is a skill area where many students whose attainment is below that of the National Average struggle to show progress.
To address this we have developed two 6 lesson projects which aim to support students in acquiring these skills in a context which is motivating and relevant to students.
Approach
In both projects, students are provided with a crime to solve. In order to solve the crime they have to carry out a series of investigations which have been specifically designed to meet the Sc1yearly teaching objectives at KS3.
The investigations
These investigations include:
- Investigating the relationship between shoe size and height in order to estimate the height of a suspect from a footprint at the crime scene
- Understanding the importance of controls in DNA fingerprint analysis.
- Investigating the relationship between distance a blood sample travelled and the length of the resulting blood splat in order to determine a victim’s position
- Identification of pollen samples on clothing and understanding the importance of sample size when drawing conclusions
- Evaluating whether evidence is sufficient to support conclusions
Evaluation
Each investigation makes most sense if carried out within the context of the 2 week project. The project was carried out within science curriculum time in year 9 before students sat their SATs examination. Evaluation of the project revealed that students attitude to science and their ability to achieve was significantly improved. SATs analysis against the previous years cohort showed a doubling in the number of level 5 achieved.
Last updated: 31 May 2007
