Web Links

K–12 activities

The Case for Innocence is the companion Web site to a similarly-titled episode of the PBS series, Frontline. It explains the science behind DNA testing and profiles four compelling cases, during which DNA evidence had been ignored, discounted, or kept secret.
Grade Level: 9–12

Creating a DNA Fingerprint is an online activity that describes the uses of DNA fingerprinting. Students solve a series of mysteries using computer-simulated DNA fingerprinting techniques.
Grade Level: 9–12

Crime Scene Investigation asks students to use forensic techniques to solve a murder mystery featuring the characters from the game "Clue."
Grade Level: 9–12

Fingerprint Identification, FBI Kids K-5th Grade – About the FBI – What We Do, a page of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Web site, offers general information to a juvenile audience about forensic techniques that FBI scientists use to solve crimes.
Grade Level: K–5

High School Forensic Investigation and Mock Trial, an activity designed by two forensic scientists for high school students, simulates the forensic investigation of a crime and the subsequent criminal trial. The Web site guides educators through the preparatory and execution phases of the activity with a descriptive timeline.
Grade Level: 9–12

How to Solve a Crime or Mystery is an activity-based Web page that introduces primary-school audiences to forensic science. By completing the 4 activities, the audience learns about forensic science techniques, the history of forensic science, and the educational requirements for the field.

Interactive Investigator — Virtual Exhibit on Forensic Science is an online activity that describes the uses of DNA fingerprinting. Students solve a series of mysteries using computer-simulated DNA fingerprinting techniques.
Grade Level: 9–12

Ladder of Life Lesson Plan and its extensions teach students about practical applications of DNA profiling and the role that DNA profiling plays in the field of forensic science, through an in-class DNA extraction activity. This activity compliments "Killer's Trial", an installment of the television series NOVA.
Grade Level: 10–12

Scientific American Frontiers: Dead Men's Tales Teaching Guide – Splatter Spread is a featured article that explores the field of forensic science. It appears on the Web site of the online, science question–and–answer service "Science Line."
Grade Level: 5–8

Virtual DNA Fingerprinting Laboratory, developed by the National Science Foundation's Center for Engineering Plants for Resistance Against Pathogens (CEPRAP), involves high school students in solving a mystery using virtual laboratory techniques.
Grade Level: 9–12

Wanted—Butch and Sundance is an activity in which students use forensic anthropology techniques to identify a set of remains. This activity compliments "Wanted: Butch and Sundance", a 1993 installment of the television series NOVA.
Grade Level: 6–12

Welcome to the World of Forensic Entomology is the main page of the American Board of Forensic Entomology, maintained at the University of Missouri. The Web site offers information on the history of forensic entomology, forensic entomology case studies, careers, and methods and tools used in the field.
Grade Level: 6–12

What Jennifer Saw is the companion Web site to an episode of the PBS show Frontline. What Jennifer Saw examines false eyewitness identification in crimes and the role of DNA evidence in exonerating the wrongfully accused.
Grade Level: 9–12

Who Killed Myra Mains? (PDF, 6.8 MB) asks students to investigate a mock crime scene in an integrated science unit. In this inquiry-based lab activity, students formulate and revise scientific explanations, and gain the ability to communicate and defend a scientific argument by using the scientific method.
This document is in PDF format and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Grade Level: 9–12

Wonderville is an interactive science Web site developed by the Science Alberta Foundation. It has computer-based and printable fingerprinting activities.
Grade Level: 3–8