CSI Expert!

Forensic Science for Kids (Grades 5-8)

Karen K. Schulz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000491494
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica della scienza e della tecnologia

Crime scene investigation is hotter than ever, and kids everywhere will love learning about how their favorite detectives use science to figure out unsolvable thefts, arsons, mysteries, and more. CSI Expert!: Forensic Science for Kids includes more than 25 in-depth activities on fingerprinting, evidence collection, blood-stain identification, forensic careers, ballistics, and much more.The author of the best-selling Crime Scene Detective series combines more than a decade of experience teaching forensic science to middle school students with the latest technology and research in criminal investigations in the intriguing standards-based scientific study included in CSI Expert! Students will love collecting dental impressions, studying their classmates' fingerprints, looking at tool marks left at the scene of the crime, analyzing mysterious powders, and discovering the various types of counterfeit checks. Each lesson includes a realistic case for students to crack using the knowledge they've learned about analyzing forensic evidence, and the book also includes an assessment assignment that teachers can employ to test their students' learning.Both kids and teachers will be able to easily implement the book's hands-on, detailed, and exciting forensic science experiments using everyday materials. After completing these activities, kids will be begging for more fun science learning!Grades 5-8

The Labs

I Spy: Documenting the Crime Scene

Teacher Instructions

DOI: 10.4324/9781003234012-2

This lab is teacher directed. No student lab procedures are needed.

Objective:

The student will examine and document evidence at a simulated crime scene.

Background Information:

Before forensic scientists can conduct experiments on potential pieces of evidence, the evidence first must be recovered from the crime scene. A crime scene must be searched carefully and thoroughly and documented in order to obtain all of the possible evidence and to help investigators reconstruct the events that occurred during the crime in order to solve the case.

There are several things that police routinely do at a crime scene. Typically, they first check the victim if there is one. They then secure the area by using a special type of plastic tape or ribbon that says “Police Line Do Not Cross.” This tape is placed around the perimeter of the crime scene to deter unauthorized visitors from entering the area. The third step in the police procedures is to document the area by taking photographs or videos and/or making sketches. Measurements of the location of suspected pieces of evidence also are taken. Police continue to thoroughly search and document potential evidence. Witnesses also will be interviewed to gather additional information.

When officers acquire evidence at a crime scene, they follow a certain protocol to make sure the evidence is preserved and documented accurately and legally. Each piece of evidence collected is put into its own container. Depending on the type of evidence, it might be a plastic or paper bag. The container is then labeled and sealed. The label indicates where and when it was found and is initialed by the officer who found it. The evidence is then sent to the forensic lab. By following these procedures, police will have documentation proving when, where, and by whom the evidence was found. Police must be able to prove that the evidence was always in their possession.

Gathering Materials:

You will need to generate simulated pieces of evidence. You may want to create a fingerprint, a shoeprint, and a note, or any other type of evidence. Make orange cones out of construction paper, one for each piece of evidence you plan on having at the crime scene. Identify each cone with a letter, starting with “A.” You will need tape measures and student copies of the Crime Scene Documentation: Evidence Location Chart on page 9.

Setting Up and Completing the Lab:

1. Create or gather the pieces of evidence you will place in your classroom to simulate a crime scene. You may include evidence like fingerprints, shoe prints, a handwritten note, and so on.
2. Place the evidence in various places in your classroom. Do this before students arrive to class.
3. When class begins, discuss the basic procedures for processing a crime scene as outlined in the background research.
4. Distribute the Crime Scene Documentation: Evidence Location Chart found on page 9.
5. Ask students to examine the crime scene without touching anything.
6. Next, students should sketch the crime scene (classroom) including major points of references such as student desks, computers, door, teacher's desk, tables, etc. They may sketch the room on the back of the Crime Scene Documentation paper.
7. As a class, discuss possible pieces of evidence seen in the room. Have students place the lettered cones next to each piece of evidence. For example, the fingerprint might be identified by the cone marked with a letter A, the shoe print by the cone marked with a letter B, and so on.
8. Students should then include in their drawings the items that the class has identified as evidence. They should place the letter that identifies the evidence in the appropriate location in the sketch, labeling each piece of evidence by the letter assigned to it.
9. Record these letters, a description, and the general location of the evidence in the appropriate places on the Crime Scene Documentation paper.
10. To better indicate the location of the evidence, have the students measure the location of each piece of evidence from two fixed points in the room. For example, if a note is located next to the trashcan that is near the door, students may measure the distance the note was from the classroom door and from a sidewall. The trashcan is an object that can be moved so it would not be considered a fixed object and should not be used when taking measurements. These measurements help put into perspective the rough sketch drawn by the student detectives.
11. Assign groups of students to measure and record a specific piece of evidence. Time permitting, you may rotate students through each piece of evidence so they can document more than one piece.
12. After students have finished processing the scene, discuss why it was necessary to follow certain procedures for searching the crime scene. Another topic for discussion might involve how investigators know if something is valuable evidence or just an item innocently present at the scene.

Special Notes:

If you have access to digital cameras or video cameras, you might want students to take pictures of the crime scene before taking measurements.

Crime Scene Documentation: Evidence Location Chart

Date: __________________ Time: _______________ Location: _____________________

Letter	Description of Evidence and General Location	Description of Fixed Point 1 and Distance from Evidence	Description of Fixed Point 2 and Distance from Evidence
Example: A	Shoeprint on floor by teacher's desk.	Doorframe leftside—56 cm.	Outlet on back wall—34 cm.

Tool Time: Tool Impression Lab

Teacher Instructions

DOI: 10.4324/9781003234012-3

Objective:

The student will learn how tool marks are identified and used as evidence at a crime scene.

Background Information:

Most tools used at a crime scene will leave behind some kind of telltale mark called an impression. Impressions vary from scratch marks, to cut marks, to “jimmy” marks. Saws, wire cutters, or knives might leave cut marks, while a variety of tools might produce scratches when coming into contact with surfaces. A jimmy mark is the mark that is most often identified at a crime scene. You would most likely see this mark between ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Teacher's Guide
• The Labs
• Reference Materials
• Answer Key
• About the Author
• Common Core State Standards Alignment