By Emma Reid, Sebastian Dow, Justin Keizer, and Marilynn Hunt
This project was a cool way to learn what it's like to be a forensic scientist. The goal of the project was to discover who killed Carleton Comet. We ran a bunch of tests on evidence from the crime scene and then presented our findings to a jury. A few of the experiments we ran were DNA fingerprinting, ink karyotyping, and fingerprinting.
Content
forensic: relates to using the scientific method to solve crimes
(We pretended to be forensic scientists in this project.)
electrophoresis: a process used to separate macromolecules in a gel or fluid under the influence of an electric field
(We used electrophoresis to observe the DNA from the crime scene through DNA fingerprinting.)
chromatography: separates mixtures into their different components
(We used ink chromatography to find out which pen belonged to the murderer.)
karyotype: the chromosomes of an organism organized so you can see the number and visual appearance
(We used the karyotypes of each suspect to find genetic disorders like triple x.)
genotype: the genetic makeup of an organism and genes responsible for traits
(We learned about genotypes as an intro to this project.)
(We pretended to be forensic scientists in this project.)
electrophoresis: a process used to separate macromolecules in a gel or fluid under the influence of an electric field
(We used electrophoresis to observe the DNA from the crime scene through DNA fingerprinting.)
chromatography: separates mixtures into their different components
(We used ink chromatography to find out which pen belonged to the murderer.)
karyotype: the chromosomes of an organism organized so you can see the number and visual appearance
(We used the karyotypes of each suspect to find genetic disorders like triple x.)
genotype: the genetic makeup of an organism and genes responsible for traits
(We learned about genotypes as an intro to this project.)
Reflection
I enjoyed this project. It was a lot of fun to act like a forensic scientist. We were able to do a lot of different types of experiments. It was really interesting. A few things our group did well was time management and communication. We finished our presentation on time and communicated who would do what well. We never misunderstood each other, but we could work on our productivity and focus. Sometimes we got distracted. Also I had trouble staying focused during some of the experiments because there wasn't a lot to do. I think the best part of the project was formulating our argument on how we knew that Nancy Normal was the killer and why. It made the project seem more realistic. Hopefully we will do a similar project again soon.