Finally the last post I have been delaying for way too long! (Thanks Sheila for reminding me:)
SO Day 7: Crime Day. You must be wondering what this day could have to do STEM. Well our amazing teammate Lulu thought of the idea to go along with the frog dissection. She came up with the story line inspired from princess and the frog. Basically, we (the teachers) found a bunch of dead frogs and we want to confirm if the prince was one of the dead frogs or not. Next we want to find the culprit who murder the frogs. In order to do this, we taught the students the concept of forensics. The students learned what luminol was and how it works. Luminol is what many forensics used to detect blood when it is on dark pieces of articles. The reason is that when blood reacts with luminol it glows blue. Originally, the plan was to have the students use luminol to find a fake blood message, however, we could not get the luminol to work (rip Lulu). Instead we decided to have the students make the fake blood themselves. Of course we could not make it too easy because it was crime day, so we had some small riddles hidden around (riddles were inspired by my fav variety show on Netflix: Busted!!- starring EXO’s Sehun!). First, the students had to solve some problems related to subjects we taught before (Bacteria, Physics-Lift, Microscopes, Chemistry) in order to find the chemical formula of luminol. Try solving the ones below :)!!
After making the fake blood they had to complete a series of riddles and review questions from previous modules we had prepared. The plan was to make crime day the first half of the day so we had to make sure the riddles were not to easy or hard. At first the students were really lost and confused because the instructions were all in english, however with some hints from us the students started to get solve the riddles working in teams. We also announced that this was a competition of speed, so we got to see the competitive side of many of our students.
Mark trying to solve the clock riddle 
Working as a team to solve the riddles
Here are some of the riddles the students had to solve
In order to have the students move around, we also had the students solve some questions through a program Lexi made the night before through python (my cs goddess). It was super funny because the students quickly realize they needed their notebooks for this so I saw many of them run up and back down because to them this was a competition of speed.
After finishing the online program, the students had to find the culprit by doing a series of test to find who/what the unknown solution that was discovered at the crime scene is. The activity– the students were given 4 known solutions they had to test with 3 different indicators. We gave them a chart to keep notes and track of what happened in each reaction. After knowing the chemical reactions of each known solution, the students needed to test the unknown solution with the indicator to deduce what the identity of the solution was. This was an activity me and Lulu remembered doing in AP Chemistry and it exercised the students problem solving.
The students were able to get through the small activities and riddles faster than I thought, so I slipped in one last riddle so we can make it to lunch. Though it was a slight mess, it ended smoothly and the students seemed to really enjoy the whole concept of being a detective :).
Lunch: bibimbap
Afternoon section of Crime Day was frog dissection. I personally thought I was ok and would not be grossed out by the frogs but 15 mins into it I was out, KO. Many of the students were grossed out/scared of the frogs so the super excited students [Michelle and Cindy] were able to get a frog for themselves.
Lulu did a great job explaining the body parts of the frog with her beautiful power point slides. The students were able to easily follow along and identity key parts of the frog’g body.
Michelle was super into the frog dissection. She was super neat and focused. 
Though frog dissection was interesting, many of the students started to stop because they were starting to get grossed out. So we decided to end the day by building the brain game we could not get to the day before. Many of the students really liked soldering and some were naturals at it. Some students like Michelle, Emily and Anna were really good with their hands and were able to quickly put together the parts. However, due to time the students were not able to fully complete their game which was a shame.
Overall Crime Day was a success and we were able to get through the day with no significant challenges. The team worked well to keep the students engaged and without them the day would have crashed real quick.
To end the day we treated ourselves to Lexi’s fav cheese jjimdak.
Peace out my dudes (Tis my last post) 🙂
GTL Korea 2020 