St Canice’s Primary win fourth place in the Murder under the Microscope competition

St Canice’s students win fourth place for their sleuthing skills

The Murder Under the Microscope website

On Friday 19 November, Year 5 and 6 student detectives from St Canice’s Primary, Katoomba won fourth place in the Murder Under the Microscope competition at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

Organised by the Centre for Learning Innovators Group, the annual initiative invites students from Year 5 to Year 9 across Australia, New Zealand and Asia to solve a real life eco crimes. Students use the clues provided by Catchment Headquarters to identify the victim (a plant or animal species), the villain (an environmental problem) and the crime site (an environment).

The winning team is the fastest to submit the correct answers online on accusation day after a specified time. The student teams also have to come up with an action plan of how they would protect this environment in future.

In this year’s competition, Shockwave on the Shoreline, the St Canice’s team called the Mystery Breakers, were the first team in NSW and the fourth team from 1200 international teams to correctly solve the mystery of the weedy seadragon. The weedy seadragon is animal species (fish) that has nearly been made exitinct from the Genoa River in Victoria due to changes in water temperature relating to climate change.

During the prize ceremony, the St Canice’s team was rewarded for their crime solving abilities with a new graphics tablet and a participation certificate for each member.

St Canice’s assistant principal, Jemmy Brickwood said the competition had many benefits for students’ learning.

‘The Murder Under the Microscope competition is so engaging for the students,’ said Jemmy. ‘Using a real life situation makes it very relevant and helps to heighten the students’ awareness of their responsibility to protect the environment.’

‘The program also helps the students develop skills in a number of key learning areas of the curriculum,’ she said. ‘For example, they use Maths to compare water temperatures; Geography to research where the crime scenes are located; and literacy skills to interpret the clues and present their research on the environmental problem.’

Visit the Murder Under the Microscope website

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