Collection of Activities to make a Unit on Forensics
Beginning Level:
- Testing
for blood: doing simulated
immunoassay (wet lab)to distinguish human blood from other stains. Did the farmer kill his wife or are those
stains on his jeans really animal blood as he claims?
- Introduce
topic of DNA – do DNA extraction (wet lab); Desktop activity: make model of DNA.
- Technology
of DNA identification: electrophoresis
and restriction enzymes. Introduce
with Demystifying Electrophoresis
(wet lab). Molecules separate by size and charge in
electric field. Can explore size
and charge concept further with this lab.
Then demonstrate action of restriction enzymes with a desktop activity
– DNA Scissors. Concept: DNA for
identification purposes – unique hypervariable
regions in the human genome.
- DNA Identification:
CLUE game – who killed Miss Scarlet
in the library? Apply the prior information
about electrophoresis and restriction enzymes with a Desktop activity where
students each get a different “piece of DNA” from the crime scene, cut with
restriction enzymes, arrange fragments and match to gel photo of crime scene
and suspect DNAs. Class assembles
all the data to discover who killed Miss Scarlet. Credits:
Sandra Porter, SCCC.
Intermediate Level
- Optional: Immunoassay for identifying blood as
human in origin. (see above)
- Technology
of DNA identification:
electrophoresis and restriction enzymes. Introduce with Demystifying
Electrophoresis (wet lab).
Molecules separate by size and charge in electric field. Can explore size and charge concept
further with this lab. Then
demonstrate action of restriction enzymes with a desktop activity – DNA
Scissors. Concept: DNA for
identification purposes – unique hypervariable
regions in the human genome (desktop activity).
- Optional: CLUE game – who killed Miss Scarlet in
the library? Apply the prior information about
electrophoresis and restriction enzymes with a Desktop activity where
students each get a different “piece of DNA” from the crime scene, cut
with restriction enzymes, arrange fragments and match to gel photo of
crime scene and suspect DNAs. Class assembles all the data to discover
who killed Miss Scarlet.
- Concept
of DNA for ID purposes: Do DNA Patterns
(wet lab) (same lab as in AP biology lab 6) and/or Seafood
Forensics (wet lab). Both use
gel electrophoresis to identify – one is DNA, Seafood
lab (SFF) is Protein identification. SFF uses grocery store food to make
extracts and distinguish on gel – good lab to extend into further investigations
or use for science fair projects.
This material is based on
upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #0501701
and NIH R25RR17282. Any opinions, findings,
and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF or NIH.
Updated June 2009