Murder Mystery

Murder Mystery description

For our DNA unit in our STEM Biology class, we did a Murder Mystery Project to learn about forensic science, and build a greater knowledge of genetics. We were given the assignment of solving a murder case and then present our case of who killed the victim to the class. The case given to us involved a man named Carelton Comet who was killed at a picnic with five of his old acquaintances. Given all the pieces of evidence found on the scene, the two types of blood from the murder weapon, the fingerprints on the broken glass, and the ink from the threat note, we had to run experiments to figure out who was the murderer. To study the blood from the murder weapon, we ran blood type tests, we looked a the karyotypes of the DNA extracted from the blood, and finally we did DNA Fingerprinting as another way of identifying the individual with matching DNA. Then we took fingerprints from all individuals at the crime scene and compared it to the one on the broken piece of glass. Next we tested the ink from the threat note by doing ink chromatography and comparing it with pens found on the others at the picnic. Besides from testing the evidence at the crime, we looked at the pedigrees and family histories of all six individuals at the picnic to identify connections and motives. After creating our claim of who committed the murder from analyzing all evidence, we had to create a google slides presentation as a group, and then a CLEAR paragraph, individually, as ways to present our information.

Content

Ink Chromatography: a method of separating out materials from a mixture. Ink is a mixture of several dyes and therefore we can separate those colors from one another using chromatography. When we expose a piece of paper with ink on it to a solvent, the ink spreads across the paper when the ink dissolves.Some inks are water-soluble, so you can use water as the solvent, while others are often alcohol-soluble and you can use Isopropyl alcohol as the solvent to create your chromatograph.

DNA Fingerprinting: a process in which multiple DNA samples are put into a gel electrophoresis where it's charged with electricity. Due to DNA’s negative charge, the molecules are pulled through the gel and are separated by length. The differences in distance of molecules in the DNA samples can help us identify DNA.

Gel Electrophoresis: a laboratory method used to separate mixtures of DNA, RNA, or proteins according to molecular size. In gel electrophoresis, the molecules to be separated are pushed by an electrical field through a gel that contains small pores.

Karyotyping: a process in which pictures are taken of chromosomes of an individual’s DNA. These photographs can reveal any abnormalities, (Like disease, syndromes, chromosomal disorders, etc.) in the DNA once they are compared to a normal set of chromosomes. Karyotyping could also be used to identify individuals in a group.

Pedigree: a diagram that shows the occurrence and appearance of phenotypes of a particular gene or organism and its ancestors from one generation to the next.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR): a method widely used in molecular biology to rapidly make millions to billions of copies of a specific DNA sample allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it to a large enough amount to study in detail.

Reflection

This project was a very long and intensive project that I believe my group did well on. However, there were a few areas of our work which we could have improved to make a better presentation, with less stress. One negative thing our group could have worked on was our Graduate Profile 'C' of conscientious learning. As a group we worked hard to create a great end result for our project, however we could have improved on our time management to finish more efficiently. Together we could have decided a better way to split up work instead of having multiple people working on one area of a project. An example of this is when we were all working on our pedigrees, while instead we could have at least one person working on the karyotypes to finish the project without stressing at the last minute. Another negative thing that could be improved is our Graduate Profile 'C' of communicating. Although we all worked hard, there were times where I could have communicated more with my team to express ideas I had for parts of the project. An example of this was how I thought that adding a certain picture to our presentation would have been very useful. Instead of communicating this, I waited for the last minute to add it in as we working stressing over finishing the presentation.

Besides a few small pits, the project went extremely well as our group worked smoothly together. One great peak of our project was how everyone used the Graduate Profile 'C' of collaborating. Our group worked coherently together as everyone was contributing and working towards finishing the project. One example of this was how everyone was working on the gel electrophoresis together. We all were very focused and working fast to finish the electrophoresis precisely and with time to spare. Another peak during our project was our use of the Graduate Profile 'C', critical thinking, to further our labs and studies. Although we could have worked on managing our time more efficiently, our group did a great job of analyzing the current information we had, and studying further explanation of the information, or asking questions to have a better understanding of the evidence in our project. An example of this was how after running all of the experiment involving the evidence, we went back to our pedigrees and family history to have better understanding of the connections between individuals in the murder case.