Happy Monday! We had a great day with our first day of cracking the case! We learned that forensic science allows us to test and observe evidence found at a crime scene. Forensic science involves biology, chemistry, and physics, and this week we will be discussing how those sciences are integrated into forensic science.

Today, we gained new knowledge about how forensic scientists use fingerprints to solve criminal cases. Our focus today was examining fingerprints in detail. We learned about the types of fingerprints: arch, whorl, and loop. We learned about the characteristics like dots, enclosures, forks, etc. that examiners use to determine if a set of prints is a match, and examiners need a total of eight characteristics to determine a match. We watched a video about the process of collecting and analyzing fingerprints by crime investigators. This process includes dusting, collecting with tape, and taking to the lab to be photographed. The prints are then scanned and processed into a large database where the computer scans for matches. We also learned the limitations of fingerprinting. We can only identify fingerprints that have been entered into the database or collected to eliminate suspects. Some fingerprints found in crimes do not have a match and cannot aid in the investigation.

We even collected and identified our own fingerprints! You can ask them to share the prints they took home with them and have them describe the characteristics found in their own prints.

Ask your child some of these questions to find out more about what they learned today:

We had a great time and look forward to learning more about DNA profiling tomorrow.