On 22 June, students hoping to study A-Levels with us in September 2011 were invited in to do a taster day with a difference.
During an introductory talk by Janet Ruffoni, two criminals wearing hooded tops and wielding dangerous-looking water pistols burst in, and proceeded to rob several members of staff of their mobile phones, and when Applied Business Studies teacher Kate Huggon refused to hand over her mobile, she was shot several times by one of the violent assassins, and she slumped to the ground. It was a deplorable raid which left several students in shock… until Janet explained that it wasn’t real (if the water pistols hadn’t already given it away!)
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And so the CSI Loughborough day began. Students had previously indicated whether they were more interested in the Science & Maths activities on offer, or the Humanities activities, and thus students were split into two groups.
The Maths & Science students examined various fibres under a microscope, to try to discern which ones matched those found from the crime scene; some people were therefore ruled out as suspects. Footprints had also been found near the body, and so plaster casts of footprints were taken and compared, to see if the list of suspects could be narrowed down at all. And then there were the blood splatter patterns, which, with a bit of number crunching, enabled students to work out the height of the attacker. It then became quite clear that Suspect 1 was in fact the killer!
Meanwhile, the Humanities group were invited to discover what crimes had in fact been committed, and how robbery and murder are defined by law; it was concluded that a robbery had indeed taken place, and the unlawful death of Kate constituted a murder, as she was shot several times at point blank range. The next activity was for students to consider why some groups of people (e.g. young black males) appear more frequently in crime statistics, and the sociological reasons for these trends; reasons such as poor socialisation, peer pressure, police racism, and stereotyping by the media were settled upon. Next came a rather more difficult activity: students were asked to recall the details of the crime they’d witnessed an hour before, such as the colour of the killer’s baseball cap, and how many handbags had been stolen. Psychological reasons for poor memory of traumatic events were examined, such as leading questions and weapon focus, and only one student had realised that the killer was in fact the Sociology teacher, Karen Lancaster! The final activity for the Humanities group was a Media / English task: for them to write a news report and film it; partly in ‘the studio’ and to have a reporter at the scene, along with a couple of vox pops. These videos were done to a good standard, and you can watch some of them here.
Overall, it was a really successful event, with students having fun, meeting their teachers, and meeting some potential fellow classmates ready for September.
News videos:
