Forensic footprints

Forensic footprints Organiser’s Card About the activity This activity is designed to introduce children to forensics and its applications in solving crimes. Things have been going missing from Class 5 at StarTown Primary. A mysterious footprint has been left on the classroom floor and Gem thinks that they can use forensics to figure out who is responsible. Just like a real detective, she says they can use the footprints to work out how tall the suspect is. Through this activity you will support your group to: • Learn about how maths and forensics can be used together • Survey some adults to collect their feet size and height • Record and analyse their results to work out the ratio, and use this to solve the mystery of who has been moving things from Class 5’s classroom Kit list • Tape measure • Pen • Paper • Printed image of a shoeprint that is 28 cm long What to do 1. Introduce the activity using the story from the Activity Card. Ask the children if they have heard of forensics and what they think it can be used for? Discuss the uses of forensics in solving crimes. 2. Give out the Activity Cards and equipment from the kit list. 3. Explain that they will be designing and conducting an experiment to find out if there is a relationship between foot size and height. 4. Support the children to design their experiments. Encourage children to discuss their ○ ○ ideas and how to carry out their investigations. Prompt questions: • How will they measure and record their results? (There is a suggestion on the Activity Card) • How will they make sure their test is fair? 5. Support children to conduct their tests and record their own results (they could also take photographs or make drawings). 6. Ask the children to present their findings to the rest of the group.

Things to think about The ratio between foot size and height is most accurate in adults, so you will need to find some willing adults to have their feet and height measured! To make sure it’s a fair test, the children should use the left foot for all the adults. Children will use the height and shoe length they get from adults in their school to plot a trend line. They will then be able to use this to figure out the most likely suspect from those listed on the Activity Card Keywords • Trend line • Forensics • Correlation Extra things to do Try the Fascinating Fingerprints CREST SuperStar activity for more forensics! If students are interested in the role of DNA in forensics, recommend reading the DNA detectives books by Mandy Hartley, a fictional story about two children who use DNA to help solve crimes. British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236