Create a Profile

In this activity, we (each group) were given a set of three to five clues, and had to create a profile, or possible story, for the crime based on the evidence.The evidence provided ranged from a variety of different prints to hairs and fibers to a torn up letter. For my group, we were assigned the 3rd set of clues. This contained two fingerprints(one identified, one unidentified), a small footprint,. hair and a torn letter. We used then concluded these evidences into a story.

In Class Activity: Crime Scene Analysis

In this activity, we (each group) was assigned a miniature crime scene. My group was assigned crime scene #1, where there were  11 evidences, and the body was found at the edge of a wooded area, near a small pond.
Evidence 1: torn leter
Evidence 2: Hair
Evidence 3: Fingerprint
Evidence 4: Possible poison
Evidence 5: Maggots
Evidence 6: Decaying face
Evidence 7: Footprint walking away from crime scene & victim's fooprint
Evidence 8: Fingerprint needed to be lifted off of glass
Evidence 9: Additional fingerprint
Evidence 10: Possible fiber
Evidence 11: Syringe

For the first clue, once the letter was reconstructed, we found it was a (possibly forged) suicide note. The cursive flowed with small gaps between the words,. did not have a slant, the words were directly on top of the line, the writer applied a great amount of pen pressure, letters such as the lowercase 'l' had big loops, and the dot for the 'i' was placed over the next letter.
For the next clue, through microscopic analysis, we proved the hair as Caucasian.
Next, clue #3, the fingerprint was identified as a plain arch.
Clue #4 was not any poison  or drug we know how to identify, so it remained unidentified.
Clue #5 and #6 proved that the body was in the Active decay stage, which is then sub-categorized as Butyric fermentation, which is 20 to 50 days after death and/or disposal.
For the seventh clue, the victim footprint had a height of 6 7/8", width of 4" and looked like an athletic shoe of a child. The suspect's footprint height was 11", width 4", and it was an athletic shoe.
Next, the 8th clue was a fingerprint needing to be lifted. We successfully lifted it to find it was an ulnar loop.
Continuing, the 9th clue, the additional fingerprint, was proved to be a double loop.
The unknown fabric, clue #10, was nylon. we proved this with microscopic analysis.
Lastly, clue #11 was the syringe, most likely used to poison the victim with the unknown poison.

Crime Story:

Lucas Moore got into a heated argument with his wife about their child and stormed out of their house. His wife filed for divorce, which drove Lucas into insanity. He was instituted to a mental asylum, where he built up anger over his child, which he blamed for the divorce. He escaped after a year of captivity, and planning how to kill his child. He located the residence of his ex-wife and child and left the forged note on the kitchen table. He later stalked his child down, who was on his way to school, taking a short-cut through the woods. Lucas tried to poison his child, but his son fought back, not recognizing his child after his year in the asylum. Lucas accidentally killed his son before he had planned to, so he fled the scene. 

In Class Activity: Witness Experiment

In class, each group was given a stack of magazines and we had to cut faces of about the same size out of them. Then, we cut out the major facial features, such as forehead, hair, nose, eyes, cheeks, mouth and chin.In our group, me mixed each others features together into their corresponding piles. After this, we then tried to recreate each person's cut-out, based on memorization.once we got the correct face, we repeated the process for another person's cut-out. This activity helped us realize how important a witnesses memorization is when it comes to finding the suspect.

In Class Activity: Poison Analysis

For this activity, different stations were set up that contained a variety of possible poisons. At each station, there were three different samples of potential poisons that we (our group) had to identify by using various methods such as pH testing and reagent testing. Ammonia, aspirin, cyanide, iodine, and metal poison are some of the various poisons that we were able to identify in the lab.  We were also able to use the methods learned in our lab in the crime scene activity done in a later class.

In Class Activity: Lipstick

In this activity, all(including the boys) of the students were required to put on lipstick, leave our lip print on an index card, and examine the properties of lips.During examination, we recorded different properties that were visible on our lips. Then later we (our individual group) allowed another group to compare our lip prints to their prints on their index cards and matched them together. This lab exemplified the use of looking at the characteristics of things left behind at a crime scene (such as lip prints), observing them and then recording them in order to find the possible suspects.

In Class Activity: Drug Analysis

For this lab, we were given various simulated drug sample that resembled real drugs and were required to properly identify and label them according to the test. First, we were given “drugs” and was told to dilute them to the point where the substance was mostly dissolved in the mixture. Then we took a small sample of the dilute, tested it with pH paper, and recorded the pH and the color that it displayed. Then we used both LSD and Cocaine reagent that would display a color if the substance was positive for the reagent. For example, the Cocaine reagent would turn blue if the mixture was positive for "Cocaine" and would remain colorless if it was negative. With the LSD, the mixture would turn yellow if the presences of "LSD" were apparent. Out of the six tested substances, three were positive of "Cocaine", two were positive for "LSD" and the last one did not contain either. This lab provided us with the knowledge needed to understand how to test and verify substances as being positive or negative for drugs.
In the picture, the given dilute is positive for "Cocaine", so the indicator turned blue:

In Class Activity: Footprinting

In this activity, we left a footprint in a tub of soil provided and observed the characteristics of our impression. Almost like real forensic analysts, we recorded  crime scene data such as weather information, time, date, location, and direction of the footprint. Then we also recorded properties of the print such as the length and width of the shoe impression, as well as any visible characteristics such as the ridges or flatness. We were soon able to determine the gender and size of the person leaving the print due to the depth of the imprint. For example, males generally leave a deeper print because of their size and have a larger print because they usually have larger feet than women. Also, men and women tend to wear different shoes, for instance, some men wear boots and some women wear heels.With this lab we were able to visualize and apply the techniques used by real crime scene investigators in recording and narrowing the possible suspects by foot impressions that they could have left at a crime scene.