Evidence and Investigation

Scientists take a close look at events and make careful observations, They gather and analyze evidence. This allows them to come to conclusions. This unit focuses on these skills which may be applied to various situations.

Evidence or bits of information may not mean very much by itself, but when viewed within the big picture of a crime scene, this evidence can be the piece needed to solve the puzzle.

What happened in this picture?

What happened here?

More than one explanation is possible for the scene shown.

Essential Question

How can I use the process of investigation to make reasonable conclusions?

Targets

At the end of this Unit you should be able to answer the following questions;

1. What is evidence?

1.1 What evidence can be found of human or animal activity?

1.2 How can evidence be used to make inferences?

2. How can evidence be linked to its possible source?

2.1 How can impression evidence such as shoe prints and tire prints provide information?

2.2 How do handwriting and ink evidence help us make inferences?

2.3 How do fibre and soil evidence help us make inferences?

2.4 How can you classify fingerprint evidence collected from various surfaces?

Notebook

Throughout this unit, you will keep a Notebook. The PDF downloads are the pages of your Notebook.

• Create a folder on your computer or in the cloud titled “Investigation Notebook”.
• Save all of the PDF downloads to this folder.

Whenever you see this icon you will be directed to use the Investigation Notebook folder you created.