Owls visit Class 4

How excited we were! Linked to our English work on 'Skellig' by David Almond and related science activities about owls, representatives of the Raptor Trust visited us at school. 

It was a beautiful day, so we headed for the willow circle on the field, where the owls were waiting...

An Indian eagle owl

A European eagle owl

A little owl

The Raptor Trust staff were very knowledgeable; we learnt many things as well as having a wonderful experience, being so close to these magnificent animals. Thank you to the Raptor Trust and to Michael's Mum for arranging the visit.

Magical...

Dissecting owl pellets

Today we dissected Barn owl pellets.  We are studying Skellig  by David Almond in English ; the book has lots of images of birds in it and the main characters find Barn owls . Barn owls eat their prey  whole but they can't digest  the bones or fur so regurgitate them as pellets out of their beaks. We were able to find out what the Barn owls had eaten by careful dissection and identification of the bones  found.

We worked using tweezers  as the bones were  very fragile

Can you guess what it is?

Bones !

We found  many small mammal bones  belonging to voles, wood mice and  brown rats . 

Whodunnit?

The Forensic teams have finished their analysis of the evidence and second interviews with the suspects. 

We can reveal the chief suspect and the person that all forensic teams believe is the perpetrator:

Mr Matt Porter!! 

Many pieces of evidence linked Mr Matt Porter to the crime: fingerprint match to a fingerprint on the laptop used to hit Mrs Erith over the head; hair found at the scene matched Mr Porter's hair; a footprint found at the crime scene matched a boot found in school which was the same size as Mr Porter's shoe and had blood stains on it; an alibi which claimed he didn't see Mrs Erith in the staff room although he had a mug of coffee at the same temperature as Mrs Erith's found at the crime scene. Although other suspects could be linked to the crime scene by one or two pieces of evidence, Mr Porter was placed at the scene of the crime by many pieces of evidence. 

Whodunnit? - Mr Matt Porter

We had great fun doing the CSI days; the class liked the way all the staff involved acted like suspects  and lots of the class really enjoyed collecting evidence from the crime scene. Thank you to all the staff who took part.

Maybe some of Class 4 might use the experience to look in more depth at what forensic scientists do; you never know it might be a future career for some of them ! 

Whose boot?

The Forensic Team have undertaken further tests on the boot. The suspects have been further questioned. Will the case be solved? Will the forensic teams link the evidence to their suspects? 

Do these boot prints look the same?

The Evidence board is growing!

Forensic teams discussing the evidence

CSI

Final suspect 

Who is the perpetrator of this horrible crime?

Let the forensics begin! 

Measuring footprints!

Mrs Erith was found here.

Bagging the evidence carefully.

We gathered the evidence then tested it using skills we have learnt in Science this half term.

Testing ink using chromatography.

Analysing handwriting; does it match the map and letter found at the crime scene. 

Matching fingerprints from the laptop found at the scene of the crime. 

Testing a mug of coffee found at the scene of the crime and comparing with mugs of coffee taken from the suspects.

DCI Paterson has sent team out to see if there is any more evidence that may have been missed!

We await their return...

Crime Scene Investigation CSI

A heinous crime has taken place at Bressingham Primary School! Class 4 have been asked to investigate using their Forensic science skills. 

CELFS Forensic Team

Team Extreme

Twinkie Team

Radioactive  Detectives

5 Forensos

Our Forensic teams are ready to collect evidence from the crime scene.  

Separating materials

Continuing our Science topic, today we explored how we may be able to separate various mixtures of materials. We sieved, decanted, filtered and used evaporation and magnetism to achieve success!

Tomorrow we will see if we have managed to separate salt from a salt and water solution, by evaporation, with a little help from our classroom radiator...

...Here we are having a look the next day- and what we found...Success!