Detective Science: 40 Crime-Solving, Case-Breaking, Crook-Catching Activities for Kids

Detectives today are pretty dependent on science for digging further into evidence. All kinds of materials, from hair and blood, to fibers and bugs are sent to crime labs for further study, and often, a single clue can solve the case. With this book, kids can go "behind the scenes" in a crime lab, and learn all about different pieces of evidence and how they are studied, and how they can participate in their own way. Five chapters include forty experiments in areas including observation, investigating clues left at the scene of a crime, how chemistry and biology are used to analyze evidence, and how documents can help solve crimes. In the first chapter, young detectives will hone investigative skills by observing scenes and remembering details, using their senses to identify hidden objects, setting up a crime scene and looking for evidence, interviewing witnesses, and more. The second chapter goes into more specifics, with kids making and identifying lip prints, fingerprints and voiceprints; examining strands of hair, examining cloth and paper fibers, making casts, examining impressions, learning how ballistics evidence is gathered and more. In Chapter 3, students will test mysterious substances to discover their identity, while Chapter 4 discusses how teeth impressions and bones are studied, how to estimate height from foot size, the basic principles of DNA testing, how decomposition aids forensic scientists and more. In Chapter 5, kids can study indented paper, analyze handwriting and typewriting, and counterfeiting. A well-rounded and exciting group of experiments that gives students a not-too-grisly glimpse into scientific crimefighting. - Jess