Forensic skills are recognised
3M Young Innovators Challenge praises the work of students
A TOTAL of 32 students from five schools in the area have been recognised for their outstanding forensic skills in the Science Detectives Challenge of this year’s 3M Young Innovators Challenge competition.
Teams from Castle Rock High School in Whitwick, Maplewell Hall School in Woodhouse Eaves, Loughborough Grammar School, Rawlins Academy in Quorn and The Dixie Grammar School in Market Bosworth completed the challenge using crime scene investigation skills and analytical laboratory testing to solve the simulated death of a fictitious geology student in a case called Death Among the Fossils.
The students visited a mocked-up crime scene at 3M’s Charnwood Campus in January to gather their evidence to help determine the cause of death and possible suspects.
The teams conducted a thorough examination of the scene, photographing, measuring and collecting samples of evidence. Under the guidance of 3M Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Ambassadors, the students then carried out sophisticated scientific analysis on their samples, including gas chromatography and infrared spectroscopy to help unravel the many clues.
They began their investigation at their respective schools and following school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, worked remotely to conclude their findings.
The students submitted lab analysis reports, crime scene reports and posters summarising their findings electronically and the judging was conducted remotely by former 3M scientist, Samantha Holmes and Dr Martin Arrowsmith, a medical device consultant.
The judges commended the teams on a wide range of skills, including impressive interpretation of the toxicology report; evidence labelling and accurate recording; and perceptive and detailed investigation of the crime scene.
Teams from Maplewell Hall School, Castle Rock High School, Loughborough
Grammar School and Rawlins Academy were ‘highly commended’ and ‘commended’, and the winning team from The Dixie Grammar School receives £750 funding for new school science equipment.
All the students receive individual gifts, a 3M Young Innovators certificate and the British Science Association CREST Bronze Award.
Rosalind Smith, Reputation Communications Manager at 3M praised the students for their outstanding work: “We are delighted that so many teams continued to work on the challenge despite being at home because of Covid-19.
“All of the students have shown resilience and exceptional commitment by working remotely and we were very impressed with the level of detail their investigations showed.
This has been one of the hardest crime scene scenarios we’ve set since we launched the 3M Young Innovators Challenge, so this is an exceptional achievement.
Karl Goddard, science teacher at Castle Rock High School said: “I’m so proud of our students; they really pulled it out of the bag, especially since they were working completely remotely. It has been a fantastic experience for them and they’ve adored every moment of it.”
The 3M Young Innovators Challenge was devised by 3M, the sciencebased technology company, and has been run in partnership with the Loughborough Echo every year since 2013.
It is also supported by the Loughborough Learning Alliance, Practical Action Schools and the RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) College in Loughborough.
Due to Covid-19 and school closures, the other challenges in the 2020 competition were not judged, however, 3M will be launching the competition again in 2021 and project work conducted this year can be entered into next year’s competition.
3M has also launched a 3M STEM education resource called 3M Science at Home for local schools and parents as part of its continued committed to support STEM education.
Aimed at six to 12 year-old pupils, the free teaching resource will be a valuable remote learning opportunity during these difficult times for teachers and students and offers a fun way to learn about core scientific principles
3M Science at Home is a series of short video tutorials of experiments that can be safely carried out at home using everyday household items.
Examples include an experiment with a hairdryer and some table tennis balls to understand the Bernoulli Principal explaining how aeroplanes fly and making liquid fireworks with milk and food colouring to understand molecular interactions and why washing up liquid gets dishes clean.
The experiments are performed by 3M scientists plus some special guests, filmed in their own homes.
The programme has been brought to life with the help of several US education partners and the scientific content is relevant to the UK STEM curriculum.
Each tutorial comes with step-bystep instructions on how to prepare and conduct the experiments, addressing any safety considerations. Each video concludes with observations, a summary of learning and some further ideas of how to explore the scientific topics.
Over the coming months, the 3M Science at Home programme will evolve as new video experiments are added each week to promote ongoing learning.