Evidence of Work:
In this project we were given a murder case with information that included the suspects and their family history which we used to build pedigrees and determine possible motives, their blood types, details on sequence of events in the crime, karyotypes of the suspects, a fingerprint from the scene, a note saying,"You are a dead man" on the scene, DNA from the suspects, and the three pens that the suspects possessed during the crime. I completed this project with Pranav and Evan and we came to the conclusion that Nancy Normal murdered Carleton Comet at the picnic.
Content:
Fingerprinting: Is a common method in forensic science that examines the friction ridges on one's finger to identify who the print belongs to. We used this in our project to identify who the print found on he scene belonged to.
Ink Chromatography: The mixture of dyes used to separate out colors. We used ink chromatography to see which pen's ink matched that of the ink found in the death note.
Karyotype: Is the number and visual appearance of chromosomes. We used this in the project to match the karyotypes found at the scene with the suspects.
Pedigrees: A type of diagram showing trait inheritance, parental relationships, offspring, and siblings. Used these in the project to view the family trees of the suspects, find possible motives, and find Carleton Comet's true identity.
Heterozygous: When the genotype contains two different alleles; Example: Aa. We used this in our project to see how traits were passed down, mainly through pedigrees.
Homozygous: When the genotype contains two of the same allele; Example: AA or aa. We used this in our project when looking at traits and how they were passed down.
Dominant: This is a type of trait that will always be expressed if it is present. We used this when we did the mini-project where we'd flip a coin to decide the trait and whenever a dominant trait was flipped for it would always show up.
Co-dominance: This when the genotype contains two alleles that are not dominant over each other so they both show up. We used this throughout the project whenever we saw something with co-dominance.
Inheritance: When traits are passed down from parent to offspring. We saw this in the murder mystery project with some of the offspring inheriting diseases like Huntington's from parents.
Allele: An allele is the variation of a gene; Example: AA,Aa,aa. We used this throughout the project as we learned more and more about genetics.
Chromosome: Chromosomes are the safe place in which genetic information is stored in cells. We used this in the murder mystery project when talking about the different chromosomal disorders the different suspects had.
DNA Replication: In short, DNA replication is the process in which a strand of DNA splits and creates two semi-conserved strands of DNA. We used this throughout the project as it was something we focused on as a class.
Ink Chromatography: The mixture of dyes used to separate out colors. We used ink chromatography to see which pen's ink matched that of the ink found in the death note.
Karyotype: Is the number and visual appearance of chromosomes. We used this in the project to match the karyotypes found at the scene with the suspects.
Pedigrees: A type of diagram showing trait inheritance, parental relationships, offspring, and siblings. Used these in the project to view the family trees of the suspects, find possible motives, and find Carleton Comet's true identity.
Heterozygous: When the genotype contains two different alleles; Example: Aa. We used this in our project to see how traits were passed down, mainly through pedigrees.
Homozygous: When the genotype contains two of the same allele; Example: AA or aa. We used this in our project when looking at traits and how they were passed down.
Dominant: This is a type of trait that will always be expressed if it is present. We used this when we did the mini-project where we'd flip a coin to decide the trait and whenever a dominant trait was flipped for it would always show up.
Co-dominance: This when the genotype contains two alleles that are not dominant over each other so they both show up. We used this throughout the project whenever we saw something with co-dominance.
Inheritance: When traits are passed down from parent to offspring. We saw this in the murder mystery project with some of the offspring inheriting diseases like Huntington's from parents.
Allele: An allele is the variation of a gene; Example: AA,Aa,aa. We used this throughout the project as we learned more and more about genetics.
Chromosome: Chromosomes are the safe place in which genetic information is stored in cells. We used this in the murder mystery project when talking about the different chromosomal disorders the different suspects had.
DNA Replication: In short, DNA replication is the process in which a strand of DNA splits and creates two semi-conserved strands of DNA. We used this throughout the project as it was something we focused on as a class.
Reflection
I really enjoyed this project because it allowed me to learn a lot about forensic science which is a field of science that I did not have a lot of experience in and because of that learned a lot. My main contribution was taking part in the mini-labs that we did in this project such as DNA fingerprinting, ink chromatography, pedigrees, and karyotypes. Additionally, I worked on the formatting and set up of the presentation for our case.
I felt this project went very well ,but there are some things that I could have improved upon and some things that could have been improved upon in the project. I think I could have improved upon always being busy because I had a lot of free time and didn't use that time as well as I could have. One thing I feel could have been improved upon in the project was how much information because while it could be argued it was enough, much more information would be provided in a real case and many of the questions asked by the judges could not be answered due to a lack of information.
I felt this project went very well ,but there are some things that I could have improved upon and some things that could have been improved upon in the project. I think I could have improved upon always being busy because I had a lot of free time and didn't use that time as well as I could have. One thing I feel could have been improved upon in the project was how much information because while it could be argued it was enough, much more information would be provided in a real case and many of the questions asked by the judges could not be answered due to a lack of information.