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| |  | SCI-LIT LINKS QUICKPLAN
FINGERPRINTS
(QuickPlan developed by Dr. Ken Mechling, Clarion, Pennsylvania)
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OVERVIEW: Students observe and classify fingerprint patterns, identify ridge characteristics, and relate fingerprints to art, writing, math, and history.
BOOKLINK: Blood and Guts by Linda Allison, Little, Brown and Company, 1976. ISBN 0-316-03443-6
SCIENCE ACTIVITY LINK: Children make their own fingerprint patterns; observe, classify, and record them, and apply fingerprints to other areas of the school curriculum.
OBJECTIVE: Students will make, observe, and classify fingerprints, identify and graph ridge characteristics, and write a short autobiography using their thumbprint as a component.
SCIENCE PROCESSES AND CONTENT: Processes-Observing, classifying, predicting, inferring, communicating, gathering and displaying data, and model building. Content-Characteristics of human organisms and technology and utilization of fingerprints.
NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS: Unifying Concepts and Processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (3) Life Science, (5) Science and Technology, (6) Science in Personal and Social Perspectives, (7) History and Nature of Science, (8) Science as a Human Endeavor
MATERIALS: Book Blood and Guts, # 2 pencils, notecards, white paper, magnifying lenses, clear cellophane tape ( 2 to 3cm wide)
PROCEDURE:
1. Begin by having all students rub a very black square 3cm x 3cm on a notecard or similarily-sized piece of paper. Make the squares shiny black.
2. Have your students rub their thumbs (print side) in the black spots until their thumbs are shiny black. Now have them take a 3cm piece of clear cellophane tape and place it sticky side down on the glossy, black part of their thumbs. Next, have them peel the tape off their thumbs and place the tape sticky side down on a piece of white paper. Although they will be able to see their fingerprint patterns clearly, magnifying lenses may help. Have the students write, in their own words, a description of the pattern they observe.
3. Give each student a sheet of white copy paper and have them sketch what their fingerprint pattern looks like. Make the patterns large, filling the paper. Have them add their names to the paper large enough for the class to see.
4. Now select a place in your classroom where the students can use tape to fasten their sketches for all to see. Assemble the students into a large group and ask them first to observe all the prints. Then have volunteers move the prints around into groups that are similar. The basic groups that they will end up with are arches, loops, and whorls--the three basic fingerprint patterns. You may wish to point out to students that the fingerprint patterns in the USA are distributed approximately as follows: loops = 65%, whorls = 25%, and arches = 10%. You may wish to find diagrams of the basic fingerprint patterns to copy and distribute to your students.
5. Challenge the students to write a brief autobiography about themselves entitled, "I'm Thumbody." In the autobiography, they should include information that is important to them and when convenient, add their thumbprint, which is the symbol for "Thumbody." For instance, they may begin a sentence with "I'm," add a thumbprint, and continue with "loves to ride horses." The sentence would be interpreted as "I'm thumbody who loves to ride horses." Encourage them to be creative and generous in adding thumbprints.
6. Now that the children know their fingerprint pattern for their thumbs (arch, loop, and whorl),have them predict (without looking first!) the patterns on the other fingers---index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger. After their predictions have them observe and record their fingerprint patterns. They can use fingerprint formulas to keep records. The formulas are determined by placing the palm down in front of you and then recording the pattern by its first letter, e.g. "L" for Loop
| Left Hand | Right Hand | | L L A W L | L W A A W |
7. Have your students compare fingerprint formulas. Challenge them with some questions like "Are your toe print formulas the same as your fingerprint formulas?", "How do your fingerprint formulas compare with your parents' formulas?", "Does anyone else in your class have the same formula as you?"
8. Have the students next observe their fingerprint ridge characteristics. They should look for seven: ridge terminations, bifurcations or "Y's", independent ridges, dots or islands, lakes, spurs, and crossovers. Again, a diagram of the ridge characteristics would be helpful reference for your students. As they find and note them, have them make, display, and explain a bar graph of their findings. Explain that the ridge characteristics, not the patterns, are the actual parts of the fingerprints used as points of similarity for matching fingerprints in law enforcement around the world. Note also that similar ridge characteristics are seen in nature in a variety of different situations; sand dune ridges, chestnut tree bark, zebra stripes, and the backs of male cuttlefish.
9. Fingerprints offer great opportunities for further study. Students may wish to research the history of fingerprinting and their continuing use today. Others may want to use prints as the artistic base for animal drawings. Still others may wish to create their own "Whodunnit?" mystery using fingerprints from classmates. Students will be interested to know that of all the people in the world, no two fingerprints have ever been found to be exactly alike. Fingerprints are unique!
SAFETY: None Note: the pencil black (graphite) on fingers washes off with soap and water.
RELATED BOOKS:
Great Thumbprint Drawing Book by Ed Emberley, Little, Brown and Company, Boston,1977. ISBN 0-316-23613-6
Thumbprint Circus by Rodney Peppe', Dell Publishing, NY, 1988. ISBN 0-440-40692-7
Ed Emberley's Fingerprint Drawing Book by Ed Emberley, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 2000. ISBN 0-316-23319-6. An excellent teaching reference is
Fingerprints, Teacher's Guide, by Jeremy John Ahouse, Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS), Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1987.
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