Who Can Solve the Crime?

* Reviews *

This book offers the middle school student the opportunity to experience science by combining four major themes: forensics, the scientific method, experimentation, and science fair projects. The introduction discusses the science fair project, outlines the scientific method, and provides information about the use of safe lab practices. Using the popular idea of forensics throughout the book, the reader is first given information about how we use all our senses for observation and the importance of careful and accurate observations and recording data. The second part of the book looks at how the senses are fooled, the effect of different colors of light on our sense of sight, and can we really believe all that we hear. The third part highlights codes and how they are used, and the final part investigates a crime scene and asks the reader to solve the crime. In each section, there is some background information for the young reader, experiments or ideas for science fair projects, and real life stories of solving crimes. All of the experiments in this book have detailed, easy to read instructions and use simple materials found in the home. One experiment tests a persons ability to identify an object using only their sense of smell, touch, and hearing. Another experiment uses a simple microscope to aid our sense of sight, and one uses a staged crime to test our powers of observation. A list of the key terms and their definitions are provided along with further reading and Internet locations that allow the reader to continue his investigations. Who Dunnit? Forensic Science Experiments Series, Children's Literature