Unit 7.5

Murder Most Horrid (Exploring databases)

Tutorial 1:What have the police found so far?

Unit introduction

Watch Opener 1 as an introduction to this tutorial.

A body has been found in the Looneyville School Hall. The police have been called in, and are attempting to interview all of the staff and students at the school. This is a massive task and the police are struggling to keep track of all of the information.

As the school's resident computer expert, you have been asked to help them design a way of storing all the witness statements. The police would also like to be able to search this information to help them eliminate people from their enquiries.

 

 

Unit learning objectives

In this unit, we are learning to:

• Get the information we need from data
• Identify if information is biased
• Use filters and queries to find specific information
• Design a questionnaire to collect witness and suspect information
• Design and use a database
• Use the database to represent data in simple reports
• Draw conclusions to solve the crime
• Check whether these conclusions are correct

In this tutorial, we are working on the following APP Assessment Focuses:

AF1

Level 4 – Plan and implement solutions that combine and refine different forms of information
– Explain how and why the use of ICT varies in and out of school

Level 5 – Plan and develop structured solutions to problems which use a combination of ICT tools and techniques
– Identify benefits and limitations of using ICT both inside and outside school

Unit preparation

You will need to set up a new folder in your area and name it Unit 7.5 – Murder Most Horrid.

Get started

Your teacher will give you a Murder suspect card and then read out a description of the murder suspect. Look at the Murder suspect card you have been given, then stand up. Listen as each feature is read out. If a feature describes the suspect on your card, stay standing. If it doesn't, sit down. Who is left standing in the end? They must be the murderer!

Try it out

Witness details

So far, the police have interviewed the Deputy Head and Head Teacher. They have collected descriptions of all the teachers, and where they were at the time of the murder.

Open Resource 1c to look at the witness details.

Find specific information from a list

The police have received a tip-off that someone with brown or black hair was seen leaving the dining hall at the time of the murder.

Highlight the following information on the witness details sheet:

• People who have black hair
• People who have brown hair

You could use a different 'Fill Colour' for each category. Remember to save your work in the folder you have created for this unit.

It is time-consuming to search for information in this way, and it is easy to make mistakes. Can you think of a better way to store this information?

The police will need to interview everyone in the school, which is over a thousand people. They will need to store this information in a way that will allow them to find specific information quickly. The best way of storing this information would be to use a database.

Start thinking about ...

What is a database?

A database is like a big library. Instead of books, it stores pieces of information called records.

We can search a database to find the information we are looking for.

Your details will already be in lots of databases. Can you think of who might have information about you or your parents and what that information might be?

Your school will have information about you on a database! What sort of information do you think the school database has about you?

Weed out wrong information!

The police are concerned that some of the information that people are giving is wrong.

Using a new 'Fill Colour', highlight any information on the witness details sheet that you think could be wrong.

Now complete the questions at the bottom of the sheet:

• What might happen if the information that is given by witnesses is wrong?
• How could the police stop people from giving wrong information?

Save your work, then discuss your ideas with the rest of the class.

Find specific information in a database

Watch Skills Demo 1a to learn how to find information on a database using filters.

Now it's your turn. Open up Resource 1d and use filters to find all the people with brown hair.

Round it up

As a class, discuss what might happen if the information that is given is wrong. How can the police stop this from happening?

Homework

Make a list of information that the police might need to catch a murderer. Bring your list with you to the next lesson.