Crime Scene Investigation
The goal for this project, other than to learn about forensics, was to solve a hypothetical murder mystery by using the evidence found on the crime scene to determine who killed Carlton Comet, and with 5 suspects to choose from, we needed to back up who we accused with evidence from all the different pieces of evidence that we were given. After analyzing all of the evidence available to us, we determined that Nancy Normal had been the one to commit the murder.
Concepts
Genetics: the study of genes and heredity
Heredity: the succession of genes to offspring
Alleles: the two parts of a gene, that are inherited from your mother and father
Heterozygous: the two alleles of a gene are different
Homozygous: the two alleles of a gene are the same
Genotype: the genetic depiction of a trait
Phenotype: the physical depiction of trait
Dominant Gene: a gene that only requires one allele to have a trait for the trait to be expressed
Recessive Gene: a gene that requires both alleles to have a trait to be expressed
Co-Dominance: when a gene is heterozygous, but both alleles are either dominant or recessive, both traits are expressed co-dominantly. An example of this is the ABO blood type system
Incomplete Dominance: in the same kind of situation as co-dominance, sometimes both traits will expressed in such a way that a new trait is expressed, different from either of the traits that the alleles represent. An example of this is fingerprint types
Punnett Square: a sectioned diagram to represent the possible genotypes in any given offspring
Nucleotide: the base structural component in DNA (also the letters you'll see in some DNA pictures)
Codon:
Mutations: a direct change in the DNA that changes how it is read and what it does
Point Mutation: a mutation that changes only directly changes one nucleotide in the genetic sequence, but can affect more
Frameshift Mutation: a mutation that directly changes multiple nucleotides, and will usually affect more
Heredity: the succession of genes to offspring
Alleles: the two parts of a gene, that are inherited from your mother and father
Heterozygous: the two alleles of a gene are different
Homozygous: the two alleles of a gene are the same
Genotype: the genetic depiction of a trait
Phenotype: the physical depiction of trait
Dominant Gene: a gene that only requires one allele to have a trait for the trait to be expressed
Recessive Gene: a gene that requires both alleles to have a trait to be expressed
Co-Dominance: when a gene is heterozygous, but both alleles are either dominant or recessive, both traits are expressed co-dominantly. An example of this is the ABO blood type system
Incomplete Dominance: in the same kind of situation as co-dominance, sometimes both traits will expressed in such a way that a new trait is expressed, different from either of the traits that the alleles represent. An example of this is fingerprint types
Punnett Square: a sectioned diagram to represent the possible genotypes in any given offspring
Nucleotide: the base structural component in DNA (also the letters you'll see in some DNA pictures)
Codon:
Mutations: a direct change in the DNA that changes how it is read and what it does
Point Mutation: a mutation that changes only directly changes one nucleotide in the genetic sequence, but can affect more
Frameshift Mutation: a mutation that directly changes multiple nucleotides, and will usually affect more
Presentation
Reflection
This project had its ups and downs as expected, but we had two very large issues that were mostly unforeseen. First of all, one member of our group unfortunately had some health problems during the middle of the project, so we each had to take on a larger workload to compensate. However, this actually caused my personal work ethic to spike. Since I had too much to do and not enough time to do it, I ended up working a lot more efficiently and getting a lot more done on a day to day basis than I ever really had. A large personal problem came in the fact that I was very distracted at the time with other responsibilities outside of school from multiple leadership positions that I had taken, and so during the project I tended to be working fast, but not always focusing well enough on what I was doing. But by the time the end of the project came around, and our sick group member had returned, our group worked very well, and so by the end we had a fun presentation, and had learned plenty of cool and interesting forensic practices, which was very interesting to do.