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A jewelry store was robbed, 2 bandits made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewels. This was the third in a string of daring robberies being pulled off by a duo with the following Modus Operandi (MO):

A well-dressed young woman poses as a customer and pretends to be interested in an expensive piece of jewelry. Once the salesperson has unlocked the case, a masked accomplice enters the store and distracts the security guard, and the young woman grabs as much as she can from the case and the two dash out of the store.

During the most recent incident, the woman tripped and fell as she ran out of the store. The female thief cut her hand deeply when she fell and she left a good deal of blood on the scene.

Witnesses outside the store reported that at 9:15 in the morning a man and woman ran out of the store and sped away in a beat up pickup truck with no license plates.

The detective working the case has sent the following evidence to the CSIT Lab:
— Digital video footage from security camera video
— blood sample
— trace evidence (fibers & hair) found at scene
— photos of scene

prelab A
Genetic Inheritance

Through hands on, imaginative activities students will learn and reinforce concepts of genetic inheritance of recessive, dominant and co-dominant traits.

No CSIT Equipment needed

prelab B
Blood Components

Students investigate the different types of cells that make up blood.

No CSIT Equipment needed

lesson 1
Introduction to the mystery, KWHL

Students will become oriented to their role as crime lab in a robbery investigation. Students will read accounts of robbery and decide which evidence has most potential to yield clues, and in what ways and in what sequence they might go about investigating the evidence. The students will record their thought processes on KWHL worksheets that will become the investigation plan for the rest of their CSIT experience.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students:

lesson 2
Digital Video Analysis and Image Processing

Students will use video-editing software to isolate and enhance an image taken from security camera footage.

CSIT equipment in Lab:

lesson 3
Hands-on Blood Typing

Through hands-on investigation students will type an unknown sample of blood found at a crime scene.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students:

lesson 4
Superglue Fuming Fingerprint Investigation

Teacher demonstrates Forensic Science technique of Super Glue fuming to reveal latent fingerprints. Students use software to further enhance digital images of faint prints lifted from markers found at the scene.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students:

lesson 5
Working Backwards With Punnett Squares

Students will learn new information about the suspects. They will use Punnett squares to deduce the blood type of a father based on knowledge of the mother's and daughter's blood types.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students:

lesson 6
Database Search to Identify Suspects

Students apply the information they have compiled about the suspects to search a database of known robbery offenders. Students learn effective database search strategies and employ them to narrow down list of possible suspects.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students:

lesson 7
Trace Evidence Microscopy Part 1

Students use digital microscopes to examine trace evidence (hairs and fibers) found at the crime scenes. Students capture digital images of evidence.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students:

lesson 8
Trace Evidence Microscopy Part 2

Students use digital microscopes to examine trace evidence (hairs and fibers) found at the crime scenes. Students use software measuring tools and editing tools to add more information to the digital images of trace evidence.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students:

lesson 9
Mammal Hair Database

Students use database to identify hairs found at the four crime scenes, and determine what implications the hairs have on their suspects' identities.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students:

lesson 10
Database Search to Identify Suspects

Students apply the information they have compiled about the suspects to search a database of known robbery offenders. Students learn effective database search strategies and employ them to narrow down list of possible suspects including the new evidence—presence of exotic animal hairs.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students:

lesson 11
Luminol Test

Students will identify bloody footprints as a clue that can place ONE suspect (out of the three possible suspects) at the scene of the crime. Students are given soil samples from the shoes of the three remaining suspects and they design and conduct test using luminal to indicate the presence of dried blood.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students:

lesson 12
Preparing Evidence for Presentation to the Jury

Students gather all evidence into a multimedia presentation detailing their investigation.

Equipment provided in CSIT Portable Lab for each pair of students: