Murder Mystery
Project Description
This was the project I was most looking forward to this year. The story is this. There was a man named Carlton Comet that was recently released from jail. He had just changed his name, and invited 5 people who's lives he had affected to a picnic. At 7:35, the sky darkened, and when it was light again, Carlton was dead with a knife in his back. There were many different pieces of evidence that we had. Using these, we had to convict someone of the murder. The first piece of evidence was the knife with the blood. From the blood, we learned there were two types of blood on the knife. We also used the DNA in the blood for DNA fingerprinting, which helped us match the DNA to the suspect. Another piece of evidence was a fingerprint found at the crime scene. We used that to match the fingerprint to a suspect. One huge piece of evidence was the pedigrees. This showed us all of the family relations, and gave us motive for why someone would kill Carlton. It also showed us that Carlton was Thomas Sandstone, who had relations to all of the people in attendance to the picnic. There was also a fiber found at the scene, which we were able to match as a human hair. The final piece of evidence was the karyotypes. This showed us what people had which chromosomal diseases. All of the evidence pointed to Nancy Normal as the killer, with Sam Sophomore as an accomplice. You can see our presentation which proves this below.
This was the project I was most looking forward to this year. The story is this. There was a man named Carlton Comet that was recently released from jail. He had just changed his name, and invited 5 people who's lives he had affected to a picnic. At 7:35, the sky darkened, and when it was light again, Carlton was dead with a knife in his back. There were many different pieces of evidence that we had. Using these, we had to convict someone of the murder. The first piece of evidence was the knife with the blood. From the blood, we learned there were two types of blood on the knife. We also used the DNA in the blood for DNA fingerprinting, which helped us match the DNA to the suspect. Another piece of evidence was a fingerprint found at the crime scene. We used that to match the fingerprint to a suspect. One huge piece of evidence was the pedigrees. This showed us all of the family relations, and gave us motive for why someone would kill Carlton. It also showed us that Carlton was Thomas Sandstone, who had relations to all of the people in attendance to the picnic. There was also a fiber found at the scene, which we were able to match as a human hair. The final piece of evidence was the karyotypes. This showed us what people had which chromosomal diseases. All of the evidence pointed to Nancy Normal as the killer, with Sam Sophomore as an accomplice. You can see our presentation which proves this below.
Murder Mystery Presentation |
Terms and Definitions
Genotype: The genetic makeup of an organism
Phenotype: How a genotype is expressed as a physical trait
Polygenic trait: A trait controlled by two or more genes
Dominant: An allele that is dominant over a recessive allele
Co-dominant: Both alleles of a gene contribute to the phenotype of the organism
Incomplete dominant: Where one allele is not completely dominant over the other
Alleles: One of the forms of a gene
Gene: A sequence of DNA that codes for a protein and determines a trait
Recessive: An allele that is dominated by a dominant allele
Segregation: The separation of alleles during cell division
Probability: The likelihood that a particular event will occur
Homozygous: The term used to refer to an organism that has 2 identical alleles for a particular trait
Genome: The sum of the genetic material an organism has
Blood types: There are 8 different blood types, A positive and negative, B positive and negative, AB positive and negative, and O positive and negative. We used this to help determine the murderer
Karyotype: A line up of all of your chromosomes that can be used to find chromosomal disorders This was used to help identify if the suspects had any chromosomal disorders, and if the suspect's karyotypes matched the crime scene karyotypes
Electrophoresis: A technique used to separate charged molecules, like DNA. This process was used to compare the DNA taken from the suspect's fingerprints and the crime scene DNA
Chromatography: A method of separating out materials from a mixture. This was used to identify what pen was used to write the death note found at the crime scene
Restriction enzymes: They restrict a DNA molecule in a specific place
PCR: A method of replicating DNA. It can copy a segment at least a billion times
Genotype: The genetic makeup of an organism
Phenotype: How a genotype is expressed as a physical trait
Polygenic trait: A trait controlled by two or more genes
Dominant: An allele that is dominant over a recessive allele
Co-dominant: Both alleles of a gene contribute to the phenotype of the organism
Incomplete dominant: Where one allele is not completely dominant over the other
Alleles: One of the forms of a gene
Gene: A sequence of DNA that codes for a protein and determines a trait
Recessive: An allele that is dominated by a dominant allele
Segregation: The separation of alleles during cell division
Probability: The likelihood that a particular event will occur
Homozygous: The term used to refer to an organism that has 2 identical alleles for a particular trait
Genome: The sum of the genetic material an organism has
Blood types: There are 8 different blood types, A positive and negative, B positive and negative, AB positive and negative, and O positive and negative. We used this to help determine the murderer
Karyotype: A line up of all of your chromosomes that can be used to find chromosomal disorders This was used to help identify if the suspects had any chromosomal disorders, and if the suspect's karyotypes matched the crime scene karyotypes
Electrophoresis: A technique used to separate charged molecules, like DNA. This process was used to compare the DNA taken from the suspect's fingerprints and the crime scene DNA
Chromatography: A method of separating out materials from a mixture. This was used to identify what pen was used to write the death note found at the crime scene
Restriction enzymes: They restrict a DNA molecule in a specific place
PCR: A method of replicating DNA. It can copy a segment at least a billion times
Reflection
This project was one of my better ones. I thought that I worked well with this group, and we were able to all go off in separate directions and accomplish the task we set out to do. This made it so we could do a lot more work at a lot faster pace, which gave us more time to fine tune our project. That in turn made out project very good, in my opinion. One thing that I could work on is not getting distracted by other groups. This has not only hindered my productivity but that of other groups as well. This is most certainly a problem that needs to be addressed, as it hinders two groups productivity, not just one. One other thing that I did well was that I was able to find a motive that supported out claim, which made our presentation that much stronger. This took a lot of work, in the form or reading through all the family trees and figuring out who hated who and why. Another thing I could work on is my productivity when I'm bored. When I do get bored I basically stop all work and just stare, which does lead to problems as you would imagine. If I can work on this for the next presentation, I will be able to do a much better job in the future.
This project was one of my better ones. I thought that I worked well with this group, and we were able to all go off in separate directions and accomplish the task we set out to do. This made it so we could do a lot more work at a lot faster pace, which gave us more time to fine tune our project. That in turn made out project very good, in my opinion. One thing that I could work on is not getting distracted by other groups. This has not only hindered my productivity but that of other groups as well. This is most certainly a problem that needs to be addressed, as it hinders two groups productivity, not just one. One other thing that I did well was that I was able to find a motive that supported out claim, which made our presentation that much stronger. This took a lot of work, in the form or reading through all the family trees and figuring out who hated who and why. Another thing I could work on is my productivity when I'm bored. When I do get bored I basically stop all work and just stare, which does lead to problems as you would imagine. If I can work on this for the next presentation, I will be able to do a much better job in the future.