Learning kitGrades 8-12
Forensic science
Solve the trophy case
Work a crime scene the way a forensics class does: photograph it before you touch it, lift a fingerprint, bag the evidence the right way, then work it at the lab. Read the print, find a blood drop's angle, run the ink, type the blood, and write the case with the evidence under every claim.
- Time
- About 90 minutes on screen, in three or four sittings.
- Steps
- 7 steps, 7 of them in Crime Scene Lab
- You need
- A computer or Chromebook. Every tool and test is on the screen. No body and no weapon: someone broke a trophy case and cut a hand.
The 7 steps
These open once the kit is unlocked.
- 1Photograph before you touchIn Crime Scene LabSomeone broke the school's trophy case at night and took the trophy. Nothing has been touched yet, and that is how it has to stay until it is photographed: the photos are the record of where everything lay. The hallway is dark until your first photo turns the lights on.
- 2Lift a print from the glassIn Crime Scene LabThe pane is smooth glass, so a print on it is there but invisible. Powder brings it up, a close-up records it, and tape lifts it onto a card for the lab.
- 3Bag it the right wayIn Crime Scene LabThe drops by the case and the note on the desk are evidence too. Each goes to the lab in the right bag, with a line in the log for every step. Wet evidence goes in paper: plastic traps the moisture and the sample spoils.
- 4Read the printIn Crime Scene LabAt the lab the lift goes under the loupe. First name its pattern from its deltas. Then mark ridge features and look for the same ones, in the same places, on a suspect's ten-print card. The call is yours to make.
- 5The angle of a dropIn Crime Scene LabA drop that falls straight down lands round. The lower it comes in, the longer the stain. Measure two drops, build the formula that turns their shape into an angle, and run strings back to where they came from.
- 6Ink and bloodIn Crime Scene LabThe note's ink can be run on a strip beside each suspect's pen, and the swab can be typed. Neither test names one person. Both can rule people out.
- 7Build the caseIn Crime Scene LabNow write it up the way a forensics class does: a claim in your own words, the evidence it stands on, and what the evidence cannot say. Then name who the evidence points at and hand it in.
Work on a computer. The apps need a keyboard and a bigger screen than a phone: a laptop, desktop or Chromebook. You can pay here and open the emailed link on the computer.
One learner
Unlock the kit, $5
- All 7 steps, worked on screen, with a lesson you can print if you like paper
- Crime Scene Lab activities that check the work as it is done
- A numbered certificate with a page of the learner's own work: your notes, your claims, and who your evidence pointed at
Have a discount code?
Co-ops and classes: unlock it for a group
One payment and one code. Each learner types the code to unlock the kit on their own computer, and gets their own certificate at the end. Your pack page shows who has started and finished.
See a sample certificate (PDF) · Already paid? Find your link