1. Science Olympiad Crime Busters

2. Expectations
In Crime Busters students will identify who committed a certain crime by identifying unknown powders, liquids, and metals, and analyzing hairs, fibers, plastics, fingerprints, DNA evidence, shoeprints, tire treads, soil and splatters.
Students will also analyze evidence from paper chromatography.
Students should be able to use this data to answer some questions about who committed the crime and how the evidence supports their argument.

3. Safety Students must wear: Closed toe shoes
Slacks or skirts that come to the ankles
Sleeved shirts
Lab coat or lab apron. If you're using lab aprons, make sure you're wearing long sleeves that reach the wrists.
Indirect vent or unvented chemical splash proof goggles.
Hair should be tied back.

4. Students can bring Spot plate or something to do reactions in or
test tubes and racks, well plates, reaction plates or similar small containers for mixing
Spoon or something for scooping and stirring
Forceps or tweezers
pH paper
Magnet
Hand lens
Paper Towels
Pipettes or Droppers
Microscope slides or cover slips
Pencil to write(extra one for chromatography)
Up to 5 pages of notes

5. Supervisors will provide
Unknowns
Iodine Solution
1 M HCl
Chromatography Materials plus containers
Wash bottle with Distilled water
Waste Container
Microscope
Candles and matches if fibers are given
Other Reagents

6. Tasting or touching the chemicals will result in disqualification
Don’t remove the safety clothing/goggles at any time
Always rinse the chemical into the waste container provided
Gloves are optional

7. The Competition Qualitative Analysis
Solids (powders)
Non-powdered metals
Liquids
Polymer Testing- Hair, Fibers, recyclable plastics
Paper Chromatography (ink or juice)
Soil
Spatter patterns
Finger prints
DNA evidence
Shoeprints and tire treads
Analysis

8. Scoring
Unknowns Identification (50% of total score) (Second Tiebreaker)
Chromatography (5%)
Polymer Testing/Natural and Man-Made Substances (Replaced Water Testing) (10%)
DNA, finger printing, tire treads, finger prints, shoe prints (10%)
Crime Solution Essay (25%) (First Tiebreaker)

9. Fingerprinting Interesting Facts Does not alter with growth or age
The patterns of ridges on our finger pads are unique: no two individuals—even identical twins—have fingerprints that are exactly alike.
We leave impressions—or prints—of these patterns on everything we touch with any pressure.
Does not alter with growth or age

10. Injuries such as burns or scrapes will not change the ridge structure: when new skin grows in, the same pattern will come back.
Dactyloscopy is the practice of using fingerprints to identify someone
Fingerprints are classified in a three-way process:
by the shapes and contours of individual patterns,
by noting the finger positions of the pattern types, and by relative size, determined by counting the ridges in loops and by tracing the ridges in whorls.

11. There are 3 basic categories of fingerprints(arches, loops, and whorls). They are easily identified by there general shape and number of deltas (triangles made from ridges).
Arches
Loops
Whorls

12. Delta: Triangular area usually shaped like a T-junction Core: Center of the pattern.

13. Tented arch= an arch with a sharp corner at the top point
Arches= a hill shape with no deltas. Arches are ridgelines that rise in the center and create a wave like pattern. The ridges enter from one side and exit the other side with a rise in the middle. They do not have a delta or a core
Tented arch= an arch with a sharp corner at the top point
Plain arch= an arch with a more rounded top point
Tented Arch

15. Loops= a beanish shape with one delta
Ulnar Loop= A loop pointing towards the pinky
Radial Loop= A loop pointing towards the thumb
Loops have one or more ridges entering from one side, curving, and then going out the same side it entered. The ridges in loops double back on themselves. All loops have elements called a delta and a core.
Ulnar Loop
Radial Loop

17. Whorls= a circle like shape with two or more deltas Always have a core
There are many sub-categories of whorls, such as (but not limited to)-
Plain whorls
Central Pocket
Double loops
Accidental whorls
Whorl
Double Loop

19. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States recognizes these eight different types of patterns:
Loops constitute about 65 percent of the total fingerprint patterns; whorls make up about 30 percent, and arches and tented arches together account for the other 5 percent. The most common pattern is the ulnar loop. Loops have concentric hairpin or staple-shaped ridges and are described as "radial" or "ulnar" to denote their slopes; ulnar loops slope toward the little finger side of the hand, radial loops toward the thumb.

21. Tracks – Tires, Bikes and Shoes
1. You're going to look at tire, bike, or shoe treads.
2. Analyze each and determine which track matches what thing...(if that makes sense) OR
3. Determine which direction the person was going
4. Finally, if it's a shoeprint, be able to match

22. REMEMBER, the pictures or samples that they give you does not necessarily have to be the same size as the picture of the sample found at the crime scene. It could've been blown-up or shrunken-down. You never know. So, don't rely on size to figure things out.
The picture could've been taken at an angle, so you really want to rely on the tread.
Sometimes they show pretty clear tread marks, other times only showed parts of it, so be aware of that.

23. When someone's running, they gain distance because their legs spread far apart. Therefore, when a person is walking, a person's footprints are usually spaced closer together, maybe around one foot from the back of the heel of the front foot to the tip of the toe of the back foot. When a person is running, they're footprints are usually spaced farther apart, usually more than two feet apart (sometimes a little less).

24. Some Examples