Who stole the painting?

Who stole the painting? The Year 6 Scientists turned into lab-based investigators today as they solved the mystery of who had stolen one of Mr Lungley’s valuable paintings from his 4th floor Art Studio.

The Year 6 Scientists turned into lab-based investigators today as they solved the mystery of who had stolen one of Mr Lungley’s valuable paintings from his 4^th floor Art Studio. Luckily, the students had looked at practical chromatography and how it is used in real life, from drug-testing to criminal investigations, the week before. Armed with the skills and the scientific knowledge, they were able to prove the painting that was left in the Studio was a modern fake by looking at the chemical compounds in the paint, separated by chromatography. And whilst the thief was careful not to leave finger-prints, they did leave a smear of brown shoe polish on the floor, leading to 4 suspects – all from the science department and all wearing brown, polished shoes.

With science yet again pointing the way, the students were able to use chromatography to compare the four different brands of brown shoe polish used by each of the science team to pinpoint the criminal. Of course, like all good investigators, once they’ve build their scientific argument, they’ll need to convince a judge to convict the criminal mastermind… and if you want to know who that is – you’ll need to ask them!