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Warwick High School students help Sanfordville students appreciate chemistry

| 12 Jun 2012 | 03:57
    Photo by Roger Gavan Pavel Gorelov and Michael Dimartino performed a maggot test on a dead rat found at the crime scene to determine the time of the kidnapping.
    Photo by Roger Gavan Pavel Gorelov and Michael Dimartino performed a maggot test on a dead rat found at the crime scene to determine the time of the kidnapping.
    Photo by Roger Gavan Alan Held, far right, explains how DNA evidence is used with saliva testing.
    Photo by Roger Gavan Alan Held, far right, explains how DNA evidence is used with saliva testing.
    Photo by Roger Gavan Kathryn Ranni and Christina Carmody demonstrate the importance of finger printing. Additional photos can be found online at warwickadvertiser.com.
    Photo by Roger Gavan Kathryn Ranni and Christina Carmody demonstrate the importance of finger printing. Additional photos can be found online at warwickadvertiser.com.

WARWICK — The Warwick Valley High School Media Center was a beehive of activity last Friday morning, June 8.

Chemistry students from Dorothy Ansley Smith’s Advanced Placement chemistry class had invited third and fourth-grade students from Sanfordville Elementary School to help solve a “Who-Done-It” mystery through forensic science and in the process, get hooked on science.

For their final project this year, Smith’s students wrote the “Scandal at the Science Fair” mystery, made it into a movie and showed it to PIE (Partners in Education) elementary students.

In the movie, as explained in the printed “Moviebill” handout, Ivana Study Moore, one of the smartest people in the world, is kidnapped just after winning first place in the science fair. The smoothest detective in town, Jack Bond, is brought in to solve the mysterious disappearance.

The bloody evidence Could some of the items found at the scene, such as blood, a toothpick and a piece of gum, be the key to cracking the case?

The list of suspects was long and varied.

Did Ivana’s science fair rivals, Poin Dexter and Jimmy Proton, have it in for her?

Or was it the kidnapper scientist Marty McFly or one of his henchman, Biff or Butch?

And Mrs. Appleblossom can’t be ruled out even if she is sweet and makes delicious cranberry banana pie.

The librarian did it On Friday morning the high school students helped the elementary students solve the crime through hands-on forensic tests that they designed.

The younger students went from station to station, performing paper chromatography, blood, fingerprint, maggot, hair and saliva tests.

After comparing the test results of the many and varied suspects, the younger students were able to identify the kidnapper who was holding Ivana for ransom as Mrs. Reed, the high school librarian.

As it turned out, even though Mrs. Reed is a nice person, she was tired of Ivana writing in her library books and somehow needed to recoup Ivana’s $500 in overdue library book fines.

“This project,” said Smith, “was a huge endeavor and a great educational experience both for the elementary students as well as the high school class.”