Introduction
See Spot run! Look at Jane jump! Watch the bird fly! See, look, watch - OBSERVE! The most basic of our senses - our sense of sight - is almost always the first one used in any situation. All of the primary readers used when I was first learning to read emphasized that skill. Even though sight is the first and most basic of our senses, it is rarely used to its best potential, especially among middle school students. The first activities we do at the beginning of the year are working on observation skills. It seems like such an easy thing, but students almost never observe all the details in even the simplest task. Observation is the very backbone of science investigations, and my unit using detective fiction will be meant to enhance that skill. The use of detective stories will help students to become "thinkers" by focusing on clues, logic, and problem solving methods. Detectives are, after all, scientists who must use the scientific method and make observations and then make inferences based on those observations. Using those inferences, detectives must then provide a theory and then continue gathering data (evidence) to prove the theory. The popularity of forensic-based television shows over the last few years has raised the interest of students in this kind of topic. Hopefully, this unit will provide an opportunity for students to make real world connections to the things they see on TV. A good portion of the science learned in the twentieth century was devoted to the catching of criminals. (Evans 1) Although technology has come way beyond what anyone could have imagined a hundred years ago, good old fashioned observation remains the key to successful crime solving. "But although Sherlock Holmes would have been flabbergasted by such quantum leaps [in technology] at least one of his principles remains intact: observation." (Evans 2)
While the primary goal for this unit will be enhancing the students' observation skills and general problem solving skills, I will make some reference to forensics and genetics activities that can be used with this unit. Those two topics can lend themselves to their own very extensive curriculum units. Although I had originally planned for this unit to focus on genetics, I found it very difficult to find the right piece of literature. The earlier detective novels will not have the forensic components best used in a science class. The more recent novels, which furnish great references to genetic clues, most specifically blood, have a content that is almost always extremely violent and would, I believe, be inappropriate for middle schoolers. So for this unit I have decided to focus on the powers of observation best used by Sherlock Holmes. The only drawback is that I will have to spend some time discussing the language and style used in Victorian era writing, which will be difficult for most of my students. This very difficulty, however, will be a great asset for an across-the-curriculum unit.
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