Evidence of Work:
In this project, we worked on solving a murder mystery using forensic science. We learned about DNA and applied our knowledge to a real world situation. Our teacher gave us many different clue to work with and try to figure out who murdered Carlton Comet. Carlton was murdered on February 4, 2019 while hosting a picnic at San Marin High School. He was just released from prison and changed his name. He also claimed that he has had many airfares with different women. There were five suspects, Nancy Normal, Glen Glee, Sam Sophomore, Fred Flimmer, and Theresa Terra. There was fingerprints, two samples of blood, a note, and DNA found at the crime scene. Our groups took all that information and conducted some tests to find out who killed Carlton Comet.
Crime Report-
Carelton Comet, a mysterious person, was just released from prison and possesses a new name. He decided to have a celebration party with people he considered old friends or acquaintances.
7:00 p.m.: Carelton Comet escorted Nancy Normal, Theresa Terra, Fred Flimmer, Sam Sophomore and Glen Glee to the picnic site. Although the guests didn’t know it, each of their lives had somehow been affected by Carelton Comet.
7:30 p.m.: The host and guests sat down to a dinner of tomato soup, fresh garden salad, prime rib, baked potato and small talk.
7:35 p.m.: The sky suddenly darkened. The picnic blanket rustled, a glass was dropped, people screamed and Carelton Comet groaned loudly.
7:36 p.m.: The sun returned to show Carelton Comet slumped forward, his face in his bowl and a large steak knife in the back of his neck.
7:40 p.m.: The police are called.
7:55 p.m.: The police arrive.
8:00 p.m.: Carelton Comet is officially pronounced dead at the scene. The knife is bagged and quickly sent to the crime lab. Police interview the guests. Someone attends to Nancy Normal who cut her hand on a bit of broken glass when the sky darkened.
9:30 p.m.: The police lab determined that there were two types of blood on the knife. One belonged to Carelton Comet
The lab reports are enclosed along with important information about all of the Captain’s dinner guests.
Evidence-
We found fingerprints on a glass table near the crime scene. Along with two DNA and blood samples found on the steak knife used to kill Carelton Comet. There was a note found on the crime scene that said "you are a dead man" and we were able to find the family histories of each suspect.
Conclusion-
Looking at all of the data we have found, we indict Nancy Normal with second degree murder. Her fingerprints, DNA, and blood was found on the murder weapon. She had a motive for committing this crime and her pen was the one used on the note. Most of the evidence leads to Nancy Normal and she had the chance to kill him so she did.
In this project, we worked on solving a murder mystery using forensic science. We learned about DNA and applied our knowledge to a real world situation. Our teacher gave us many different clue to work with and try to figure out who murdered Carlton Comet. Carlton was murdered on February 4, 2019 while hosting a picnic at San Marin High School. He was just released from prison and changed his name. He also claimed that he has had many airfares with different women. There were five suspects, Nancy Normal, Glen Glee, Sam Sophomore, Fred Flimmer, and Theresa Terra. There was fingerprints, two samples of blood, a note, and DNA found at the crime scene. Our groups took all that information and conducted some tests to find out who killed Carlton Comet.
Crime Report-
Carelton Comet, a mysterious person, was just released from prison and possesses a new name. He decided to have a celebration party with people he considered old friends or acquaintances.
7:00 p.m.: Carelton Comet escorted Nancy Normal, Theresa Terra, Fred Flimmer, Sam Sophomore and Glen Glee to the picnic site. Although the guests didn’t know it, each of their lives had somehow been affected by Carelton Comet.
7:30 p.m.: The host and guests sat down to a dinner of tomato soup, fresh garden salad, prime rib, baked potato and small talk.
7:35 p.m.: The sky suddenly darkened. The picnic blanket rustled, a glass was dropped, people screamed and Carelton Comet groaned loudly.
7:36 p.m.: The sun returned to show Carelton Comet slumped forward, his face in his bowl and a large steak knife in the back of his neck.
7:40 p.m.: The police are called.
7:55 p.m.: The police arrive.
8:00 p.m.: Carelton Comet is officially pronounced dead at the scene. The knife is bagged and quickly sent to the crime lab. Police interview the guests. Someone attends to Nancy Normal who cut her hand on a bit of broken glass when the sky darkened.
9:30 p.m.: The police lab determined that there were two types of blood on the knife. One belonged to Carelton Comet
The lab reports are enclosed along with important information about all of the Captain’s dinner guests.
Evidence-
We found fingerprints on a glass table near the crime scene. Along with two DNA and blood samples found on the steak knife used to kill Carelton Comet. There was a note found on the crime scene that said "you are a dead man" and we were able to find the family histories of each suspect.
Conclusion-
Looking at all of the data we have found, we indict Nancy Normal with second degree murder. Her fingerprints, DNA, and blood was found on the murder weapon. She had a motive for committing this crime and her pen was the one used on the note. Most of the evidence leads to Nancy Normal and she had the chance to kill him so she did.
Content:
Fingerprinting- A way to identify a person. Everyone has a unique fingerprint so we could find who was at the crime scene. We used powder to make the fingerprint visible and compared it to the subjects.
Ink Chromatography- A way to separate out the different colors in the ink. It can help us determine what pen was used to write something.
Karyotypes- The pictures of the chromosomes in a cell. The karyotypes can give us a picture of all the chromosomes an organism has by taking a picture of them and then match them with their paired chromosome.
Pedigrees- A family tree that is used to show the passing down of genes and diseases. Males are represented by squares and women are circles. If the box or circle is filled, that means that they have that disease.
DNA Structure- DNA is in the shape of a double helix. It is made with a sugar-phosphate backbone and base pairs that code for amino acids. The base pairs are A, T, G, and C and they match up to code for amino acids. Those amino acids form proteins that are used to make our bodies.
DNA Replication- The DNA is separated into two single strands by the enzyme helicase (leading and lagging strand). RNA primer starts filling in the corresponding nucleotides and DNA polymerase finishes the rest of the strand. The lagging strand is a little different because it runs 3' 5'. DNA polymerase only goes 5' 3' so the primer has to jump ahead and work backwards to help start the polymerase. The new DNA is semi-conserved because it has one old strand and one new one.
Alleles- Different types of a single gene or a variation of a gene. An example is eye color and the alleles would be blue, green, brown, etc.
Dominant- A trait that will always show. It is more powerful over the recessive trait.
Recessive- A trait that will only show without the presence of a dominant trait.
Phenotype- The physical characteristics of an organism or the allele that is expressed. This is the actual trait we can see. An example would be someones hair color or eye color.
Genotype- The genetic makeup of an organism. It is DNA sequence that codes for the phenotype or the codons that code for some type of trait.
Huntington's disease- The codon CAG is repeated more than the normal amount causing this disease. It effects the nerve cells in the brain and causes them to breakdown. Huntington's can lead to mood swings, impaired judgment, and unsteady involuntary movements.
Marfans Syndrome- There is an increase in the protein TGF-B which causes problems with the connective tissues in the body. Organs in the body can be affected and could possibly be life threatening. Marfans syndrome leads to physical deformities like a curved spine or flat feet. People who have this disease are normally tall and skinny with flexible joints.
Reflection:
This project was really interesting and way different than any project I have done before. We did really well on this project but we still need to work on somethings to make the next one better. I feel like we all shared the work really well so no one was doing all the labs and work by themselves. When we had labs like the ink chromatography and the blood testing, all of us would switch off doing thing and then we would all write down the results. I think this helped us all really understand what was going on. Our group also did a good job on keeping everything organized. We would fill out a big chart of all the information as we went along with the project. This helped us understand everything more and just make it easier to see all the evidence to provide a strong case. During this project we could have done some other things differently to make it even better. We could have stayed on task for all of the time that we were given. Sometime we were doing other work while we had time to do our project. We could have fixed some of the little things if we would have used our time wiser. Another thing we need to work on for next time is practicing the presentation. We knew who was doing what slide but we never really practiced all together. I think our case would have been a lot more convincing if we had more practice. This project was one of my favorites because it applied to a real world situation and it was super interesting.
Fingerprinting- A way to identify a person. Everyone has a unique fingerprint so we could find who was at the crime scene. We used powder to make the fingerprint visible and compared it to the subjects.
Ink Chromatography- A way to separate out the different colors in the ink. It can help us determine what pen was used to write something.
Karyotypes- The pictures of the chromosomes in a cell. The karyotypes can give us a picture of all the chromosomes an organism has by taking a picture of them and then match them with their paired chromosome.
Pedigrees- A family tree that is used to show the passing down of genes and diseases. Males are represented by squares and women are circles. If the box or circle is filled, that means that they have that disease.
DNA Structure- DNA is in the shape of a double helix. It is made with a sugar-phosphate backbone and base pairs that code for amino acids. The base pairs are A, T, G, and C and they match up to code for amino acids. Those amino acids form proteins that are used to make our bodies.
DNA Replication- The DNA is separated into two single strands by the enzyme helicase (leading and lagging strand). RNA primer starts filling in the corresponding nucleotides and DNA polymerase finishes the rest of the strand. The lagging strand is a little different because it runs 3' 5'. DNA polymerase only goes 5' 3' so the primer has to jump ahead and work backwards to help start the polymerase. The new DNA is semi-conserved because it has one old strand and one new one.
Alleles- Different types of a single gene or a variation of a gene. An example is eye color and the alleles would be blue, green, brown, etc.
Dominant- A trait that will always show. It is more powerful over the recessive trait.
Recessive- A trait that will only show without the presence of a dominant trait.
Phenotype- The physical characteristics of an organism or the allele that is expressed. This is the actual trait we can see. An example would be someones hair color or eye color.
Genotype- The genetic makeup of an organism. It is DNA sequence that codes for the phenotype or the codons that code for some type of trait.
Huntington's disease- The codon CAG is repeated more than the normal amount causing this disease. It effects the nerve cells in the brain and causes them to breakdown. Huntington's can lead to mood swings, impaired judgment, and unsteady involuntary movements.
Marfans Syndrome- There is an increase in the protein TGF-B which causes problems with the connective tissues in the body. Organs in the body can be affected and could possibly be life threatening. Marfans syndrome leads to physical deformities like a curved spine or flat feet. People who have this disease are normally tall and skinny with flexible joints.
Reflection:
This project was really interesting and way different than any project I have done before. We did really well on this project but we still need to work on somethings to make the next one better. I feel like we all shared the work really well so no one was doing all the labs and work by themselves. When we had labs like the ink chromatography and the blood testing, all of us would switch off doing thing and then we would all write down the results. I think this helped us all really understand what was going on. Our group also did a good job on keeping everything organized. We would fill out a big chart of all the information as we went along with the project. This helped us understand everything more and just make it easier to see all the evidence to provide a strong case. During this project we could have done some other things differently to make it even better. We could have stayed on task for all of the time that we were given. Sometime we were doing other work while we had time to do our project. We could have fixed some of the little things if we would have used our time wiser. Another thing we need to work on for next time is practicing the presentation. We knew who was doing what slide but we never really practiced all together. I think our case would have been a lot more convincing if we had more practice. This project was one of my favorites because it applied to a real world situation and it was super interesting.