Fingerprint Detectives at Different Ages
Websites for Kids
Books for Kids
- Dusted and Busted: The Science of Fingerprinting
- Eyewitness Crime & Detection
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Fingerprint Detectives: Older Children & Adults
Fingerprinting can be a fun science activity for people of all ages. We provide these generalizations as guidelines about what children at different ages might do during Fingerprint explorations at the Discovery Center’s Experiment Station, in the kitchen at home, or at school. Listed below are science and technology process skills that children may be practicing during their explorations. Please remember: each child develops at a different rate, so some children in each age group may be able to do some of the things described in the age group before or after their own.
How might older children explore Fingerprints?
More to Explore - Older Children & Adults
Older children and adults may be interested in exploring additional aspects of a forensic scientist's work. Visit the How Detectives Work section of the "How Stuff Works" website for ideas on extension activities for older detectives.
Scaffold - Older Children & Adults
Older children and grownups can assist young children as they take their own fingerprints - most young children will need help with the tape in order to get a clear print.
Grownups can help children remember and discuss where they may have seen, or left behind, fingerprints before. Grown-ups can extend the fun by encouraging kids to notice and look for fingerprints out in the world.
Take Your Own Fingerprints - Older Children & Adults
Older children and adults can take their own fingerprints, and compare them with those of their children or siblings.
What similarities (if any) are there between the fingerprints of your family members?