Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He uses forensic science as one of his methods for investigating crimes. In real life, some scientists work every day analyzing and solving crimes. In the book, Who Stole Herman Tweed? Mrs. Wigglebum’s students learn not to jump to conclusions without thoroughly analyzing all the evidence.

The field of forensic science is immensely popular, driven in part by television shows and sensational media.

Wow…we've just celebrated Herman Tweed's seventh birthday!  On April 23, 2016, we "officially” introduced Herman Tweed and the whole Fuddlebrook gang to the world. We kicked off with Who Stole Herman Tweed and still recommend this story as a great way to start the series.

But why begin with Who Stole Herman Tweed? In this story, Herman goes missing, and the students in Mrs. Wigglebum’s class have to solve the mystery using the science process skills. These include:

Observation: Science begins with observation. We observe using all five of our senses to gather information about an object or phenomenon. It can be a qualitative (Herman is fuzzy) or quantitative (Herman weighs two pounds). The more descriptive our observations are, the better we can communicate them.

Communication: We take our observations and ideas and talk, write, draw, make models, etc, to represent that idea to others.

Classification: We classify our observations into different categories, which helps us to not forget new information! We mostly categorize by similarities, differences, and how they relate to each other. 

Prediction:  What do we think happened? What might happen in the future? Predicting is all about what we think might be happening based on our observations above.

Inference: To infer, we connect all the dots above to make an explanation of our observations. This isn’t just a guess, and can be made from multiple observations!

Conclusion: We take everything above to form a logical outcome. What’s the conclusion of Who Stole Herman Tweed?  Well you’ll have to read to find out or we offer a special treat this month with Fuddlebrook co-author Terri Johnson reading the story for you! 

Then be a detective with Herman and try our fun activity Fuddlebrook Mystery Powder.

Enjoy!

Is your life too complicated? We can't help with everything, but we can help with some things. We can help you make your science lessons fun, educational, and simplified. Just read the Fuddlebrook story as a shared reading activity, pull the ingredients out of your Fuddlebrook science kit (already gathered, and measured for you). Then follow up with activities suggested in your Fuddlebrook teacher guide and assess through your student journals.

We suggest beginning the semester with Who Stole Herman Tweed, a story about forensic science/what is a scientist/science process skills. Students will enjoy solving the mystery right along with Freddie, Liza, and Bert. Then they can reinforce and have fun identifying the Fuddlebrook Mystery Powder. Of course, you can gather and buy the science activity ingredients, but if you have the budget for the experiment kit it’s super convenient to have the materials at your fingertips!

Want to extend the learning? Refer to your teacher guide for other ideas. How about writing and illustrating an alternative ending to the story? Do more research on forensic science.  Learn about Sherlock Holmes. Try Mrs. Wigglebum’s Chromotography Experiment.

Project the story on your whiteboard or wall by using the digital library version of the Fuddlebrook books. Or offer each student their own mini student experiment kit with supplies for ten of the most child friendly hands-on activities.

Lisa, Bert, Freddie, (and Herman Tweed of course) will make science a bright spot in your day!