forensics

evidence of work

For this project, Analiese, Jacob, and I worked together to solve a murder mystery case using fingerprinting, ink chromatography, blood typing, pedigrees, karyotypes, and DNA fingerprinting. To catch the killer we had to learn all about these different types of forensic labs and complete them. Then we had to piece together the evidence using the labs and the given background info to determine the suspect. Our presentation is below which goes over each of our labs and why we think our suspect was the murderer.

forensics project

content

fingerprint -

print found on every finger tip
can either be a whorl, arch, or a loop
different fingers can have different patterns
every single fingerprint is different
used to identify people at a crime scene
we used this to identify who touched the glasses that had shattered during the murder

ink chromatography -

process used to separate ink in a pen by dipping the ink into solute and seeing how far the solvent travels
used in forensics to compare substances + writing utensils
we used this to identify who had written the note that said "you are a dead man" by comparing the distance + color the solvent had traveled in each pen to the pen used to write the note

pedigree -

recorded ancestry, basically a family tree
males are represented as squares, females are circles
can help predict the possibility of genetic disease + disorders
we used this to connect the relationships + people involved in the case to determine the suspect + motive

karyotype -

an individual's complete set of chromosomes
can detect chromosal disorders, like abnormalties in number or structure
can be found through blood samples
we used this to compare the chromosomes found in the blood at the crime scene to the suspects

reflection

This has been the most fun project all year! I loved working with my group to complete all of the interesting labs. I learned a lot about forensics and how to solve a crime. One thing I think our group did well was following directions from the teacher. This project required a lot of attention and focus to know what you were supposed to do for each lab. Another thing I think we did well was communication. Our group always knew what was going on with each other and which portion of work we were supposed to do. This was very helpful for the presentation because we each chose different slides to work on which saved us time.

While I believe our project went really well, there is always something we can work on. Our teacher let us know she was going to be gone a few days during our project, which we didn't think much of at the time. However, when she wasn't there to guide us, we found ourselves lost and not knowing what to do for our project. In the future, I would like to have less reliance on the teacher and try to problem solve more. I would also like to stay more organized in the future. During this project, we had a lot of papers that we had to keep for each lab and it just got very confusing and easy to lose the papers.

I think I was a good critical thinker during this project. To solve the crime, you really had to put all of the pieces together from each of the labs and information that we received. While there was no correct suspect, I definitely think we were right. I also think I demonstrated cultural competence during this project. I learned a lot about differences between forensics in TV shows and in real life which broadened my knowledge.

Page updated

Report abuse