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forensics 2010
Shodor > SUCCEED > Workshops > Archive > forensics 2010

Today began with animal charades, where students acted out their ideal pet. After this fun activity, Asa led the class through a lesson on chromatography. Once they learned the basics, the students were able to test two different pens, one from Eric and Joel’s office and one from Ernie’s office, to see which one wrote the cryptic note. They tested the inks in two different liquids, water and alcohol, because different types of pens use different types of pigments. They also tested the ink from the real note so that they would know that whichever pen makes the same combinations as the real note was the pen that wrote the note.

After chromatography, Darian taught the students about the different types of fingerprints and the different patterns. Students had a chance to study their own fingerprints with magnifying glasses so they could discover what patterns they had. Next, Darian demonstrated how to dust for a fingerprint. She got Asa to touch a plastic block so that no one could see the fingerprint at first. Then she used the powder and brush and made the fingerprint appear. Once the students understood how to correctly dust for fingerprints, they practiced with plastic blocks and matched the prints to prints made with ink earlier that week. Then they took items from each of the suspects and dusted those. One group dusted the change jar that held the note down. This change jar held the suspect fingerprints.

After break, Paris led the students through a fingerprint analysis. They reviewed the fingerprints from the objects they had taken earlier and scanned them into the computer. Paris used GIMP to show the importance of layers. Then the class compared the suspect prints to the other evidence. They discovered that Joel’s fingerprints were left on the change jar.