interesting forensics reads

[chocolate-chip chooky]

@cintinative  Were you the one who put together a forensics unit? I wish I could find the old thread that I started aaaagggeees ago.

We never got to forensics, instead opting for psychology. 

But my daughter is still keen to just do some reading in forensics. She particularly likes case studies. Do you have any suggestions? She's a mature 13 and isn't squicked out easily.

Have you used this book by any chance? https://www.amazon.com/Forensic-Casebook-Science-Crime-Investigation/dp/0345452038 

If anyone has any suggestions of interesting forensics reads, I'd appreciate your input.

[cintinative]

Yes! We did do Forensic Science last year at co-op.

This is the old thread  

 

We ended up using this https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Scene-Investigations-Real-Life-Science/dp/0787966304

but we didn't do all the labs.

For fingerprinting, we used metallic and black powders. The metallic is more hazardous in that you should not get it in your eyes, but it is FAR easier to clean up. The black powder made a huge mess. It's very hard to get out of surfaces.

We did some work trying to develop prints using silver nitrate and ninhydrin. Neither of these worked well. I would suggest skipping these. It was just not really worth it and the silver nitrate needs to be disposed as hazardous waste.

I have a schedule that we followed at co-op if that would help you.  I didn't use a spine text because my kids were actually doing chemistry at home. 

 

[cintinative]

I'm looking at the old thread. A couple of notes.

I used a shoe lab from Forensic Science magazine (or something like that). It was supposed to involve multiples of the same exact shoe and you were supposed to identify which shoe made a print. I used multiples of old running shoes of the same brand, style and size. This was way too difficult. I would suggest different shoes, perhaps of the same size? 

The face recognition from different distances was not as hard as I thought it would be--we might have needed to try a farther distance.  

We didn't do any fingerprint labs that required a hood, but the ninhydrin was awful fume wise and had to be used outside. Again, I don't think I recommend it. It gave only so-so results. Watching a video about how to use ninhydrin might be better.

The blood splatter labs did not work at all. We tried ketchup and also a fake stage blood. Neither really worked--I would look for someone who has done it successfully and use their mixture, whatever it is. 

I did use information/powerpoints, etc. from the Science Spot site.

 

 

 

 

 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Unless my daughter really gets into it, I kind of doubt we'll be doing any labs. She's mostly keen to just read some great books.

Actually, any true crime types of books would probably interest her. I just ordered Steve Sheinkin's Lincoln's Grave Robbers. 

Thanks heaps for your help @cintinative.  I really appreciate the links.