Art and Science of Forensics Summer Camp
Campers had fun creating art, doing science experiments, developing their observations skills, and putting the pieces together to sovle various mysteries in the Museum.
After learning about drawing faces with realistic proportions, campers practiced drawing each other. Once they honed their skills, each camper received a photo of one of the people in the museum during the opening reception of the “Sweet Treats” exhibit. Using verbal information they guided their partner in drawing a mugshot of the suspect.
When an alarm sounded, campers had to figure out where on the museum map the camera was focused on someone lying motionless on the floor. Once they located the person, they had to find a path through the maze-like museum exhibits to the person. Luckily Museum Conservator Candance B. Fixed had slipped on a banana and soon recovered consciousness. But why was the banana on the floor instead of taped to its canvas? What was the splattered red all over a different artwork and dripping onto the wall? Who wrote the graffiti note scrawled across the wall? Where is the artwork missing from the Photography Gallery? Where is the artwork missing from the Conservation Lab? Whose fingerprints are on the relocated artwork? Why is there an unlabeled artwork in the “Sweet Treats” Exhibit? And where is the painting that is missing from the museum?
Using chromatography camper investigators identified which pen was used for the graffiti message then created colorful chromatographys strips which they later used for weaving. Camper investigators followed the paths of various footprints to figure out which tread prints belongs to whose shoes and where in the museum they had been. Matching soils and testing powders helped with the investigation. Then campers designed their own paper shoes.
Camper investigators learned about and matched fingerprints to suspects. They then created fingerprint artwork.
As they worked, camper investigators prepared charts and suspect files which they collected in their investigator notebooks.
Using all the gathered information camper investigators eventually untangled all the irregularities and left the museum back in order.
