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CSI: K'NEX Education

Fisher Science Education teams up with K'NEX Education for Forensics Workshop.
Fisher Science Education teams up with K'NEX Education to present Forensics Workshop at 2007 NSTA

Forensic science and crime scene investigation are fast becoming a career of interest for students across the country. Realizing this phenomenon, Fisher Science Education contacted key manufacturers and asked them to present workshops at the 2007 National Science Teachers Association Convention in St. Louis on the theme of Forensic Science.

During the K'NEX Education workshop at NSTA, a group of nearly 40 teachers used K'NEX DNA models to match fictitious crime scene DNA with a group of 16 suspects. Teachers meticulously recorded the sequence of nucleotides on the K'NEX DNA model found at the crime scene and then the search was on. The samples of DNA (K'NEX DNA that is!) from each of the suspects was compared against the DNA at the crime scene until all but one suspect had been eliminated. Every teacher in the workshop was able to identify the culprit.

The K'NEX Education workshop provided the teachers with the opportunity to experience the thrill of the search for the crafty criminal using science and their own knowledge of DNA codes. The teachers were very eager to employ this activity with their own students. "My kids will just love this! And, they will have to understand DNA in order to find the match!"

In addition to the forensics exercise, teachers explored other classroom applications for the DNA set. They twisted the molecules into right-handed double helices and mounted them on stands for display. They unzipped the molecules to complete replication and created daughter DNA molecules. Last, they completed the process of transcription as they formed mRNA molecules that carry the DNA code to the cytoplasm where proteins could be formed.

The K'NEX Education Forensics workshop was hands-on, minds-on science at its best! Teachers actively engaged in activities that excited their interest and knowing full well that their students would enjoy them also.

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