Students become super sleuths at Hyndburn Academy

Primary school children from across Hyndburn have been using their scientific skills to solve a fake crime scene at Hyndburn Academy.

As part of British Science Week, pupils from St Johns Primary School, Great Harwood Primary School and Rishton Methodist Primary School st peters and St pauls were invited to take part in a series of fun experiments including taking fingerprints, revealing clues written in invisible ink and a fake blood detection test to crack the case!

Jayna Merchant, head of science at Hyndburn Academy, explained what prompted the secondary school to set up this extra special whodunnit:

“Science week this year is about our diverse planet and this sparked the idea of fingerprints which is a team meeting lead to CSI”

The ear 5 and 6 y pupils were able to be hands-on for the full hour session, using laboratory equipment including flame tests and chromatography.

“We had to do different experiments to solve the crime. I enjoyed collecting blood samples as evidence” said Teagan from St Johns CofE Primary.

“We never realised that science could be this cool!” added classmate Anisa.

The event was supported by Learning by Questions (LbQ), a Blackburn company that has developed an award-winning classroom app to boost teaching and learning. Hyndburn Academy used LbQ to question the pupils and discover the culprit. Elizabeth Pugh is the Curriculum Lead for Science at LbQ:

“Science is about asking and answering questions so watching the children use a range of scientific strategies and techniques in a fun context was just brilliant. We were delighted to support the initiative.”