Blog

Hazelwood gifted education teacher Chris Williams (right) helps students Evan Foster, left, and Kobi Wells with their latent fingerprint lab at the new Hazelwood School District Learning Center science lab. Using a clean, empty, glass jar, the jar’s lid, some tape, a piece of aluminum foil and some super glue, the fifth grade students learned how to make their fingerprints show on the inside of the jar. The students have been studying crime scene investigations techniques, such as fingerprinting and how to process a crime scene.

More than one type of learning lesson took place in Room 13, the new gifted education science lab in the Hazelwood School District Learning Center.

The Hazelwood gifted education program, also called GALACTIC, moved with the rest of the Special Programs-Central classes from their former location within Hazelwood Central High School to their own facility, at the HSD Learning Center. Both student wings opened on the first day of school. The new classrooms are a result of voter approval of Proposition 2 in 2006. Each day of the week, a different grade level visits, starting with fifth grade on Monday and ending with first grade on Friday.

For their first lesson in the new lab, fifth grade gifted education students learned that art does not always imitate life, especially in television shows.

“I hate to break it to you guys, but real crime scene investigators (CSIs) do not arrive on the crime scene in expensive dresses and high heels or suits and ties,” science teacher Chris Williams told her students as they started on a multi-part lesson about fingerprinting and processing crime scenes. “They get dirty.”

Bre’Anna Shinell, who attends Barrington Elementary School, expressed her praise for the new lab.

“I like the class and the teachers,” she said. “It’s better than regular school because you get to do experiments instead of just sitting in class. It’s all new here, too. I like new stuff.”

In one part of their lesson, which would show the students how to see latent, or invisible, fingerprints, Williams had students bring an empty, clean, glass jar. She told them to cover part of the jar’s interior with their fingerprints. Then, using a piece of aluminum foil, they taped it to the underside of the jar lid, shiny side out. Next, they put a few drops of super glue on the foil. The glue reacts with the oxides in the aluminum to create fumes, so they quickly put the lids on the jars and inverted the jars. Williams told them to wait 15 or 20 minutes and the fumes would make their latent fingerprints show on the glass.

“It’s wonderful here,” Williams said. “It’s so convenient. We don’t have to carry things down the hall and this room is so kid-friendly and all the stuff is here for them to use.”

She pointed out the Promethean board, which she lacked in her old room.

“I can download forensic pictures and put them up there for the students to see,” Williams said. “That’s something we didn’t have before.”

Besides learning about invisible and visible fingerprints, they made copies of their own fingerprints, applying them to a sheet similar to what real police officers and other investigators use. They also learned how to complete a data sheet with their name, address, date of birth and age.

Jack Crowley, who goes to Lusher Elementary School, also gave the new lab and wing high marks.

“Here, it’s better because it’s ours and because we don’t have to share things with the pre-school students,” he said. “We get to eat lunch by ourselves in our own lunchroom.”

The current forensics lesson is one he said he had looked forward to participating in.

“Fingerprinting is exciting. I wanted to do this a lot because I watch TV shows about it and I have always wanted to see how it was done,” he said.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us