IGATING INK

IGATING INK INVESTIGATING INK Investigating Ink Activity Card INVESTIGATING INK NEWSINVESTIGATING INK Cocker Spaniel caught up in Canine Crime Spree Earlier this week, Lady Felicity Feline received a ransom note demanding £100,000 for the safe return of Colin, her prize-winning cocker spaniel. Detectives have seized black pens from four prime suspects so that they can carry out ink investigations to find out who sent the note. “Someone had splashed a drop of water on the note and we spotted something very interesting,” Inspector Khan told our reporter. “With a bit of help we should soon have Colin back.” Your challenge The four main suspects are: Ivor Swagbag Robyn Banks Kitty Catburglar Nick Goods Help the detectives to match the ink from the ransom note to one of the suspects’ pens to find out who has Colin the Cocker Spaniel.

NVESTIGATING INK Discuss What ways could you use to tell the difference between the black pens? Drop water on black ink and watch what happens. How might this help to solve the crime? Getting started Pens write differently and the colour of the ink can vary. Perhaps you can see these differences if you look closely. If you have explored what water does to some ink, can you use what you have found out to investigate the suspects’ pens? This process is called chromatography. Test your ideas One way to test the ink is to drip water onto a sample of the ransom note. Watch what happens. Compare this with blobs of ink from the suspects’ pens. Try to gather as much different evidence as you can. Can you find out who the dog napper is? Share your ideas Why not make a wanted poster which includes all the evidence to help detectives track down the criminal you have identified? Extra things to do Is it only black pens that you can test with chromatography? Are there other things that are coloured that you can test such as jelly beans or food colouring? Are there other ways of doing chromatography? British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236