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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 and Math Activity Link:
Calculate percentages of students in basic fingerprint groups
and compare to national percents. 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.
Mathematics Processes and Content:
Processes: use the language of mathematics (percents) to express
ideas precisely and apply mathematics to science. Content: sort
according to attributes, represent data using pictures, describe
parts of data (basic groups of fingerprints) and the set of data
as a whole to determine what the data show, and generate
percents.
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
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Principles and Standards: Number and Operations, Data
Analysis and Probability, Communication, Connections
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 similarly-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. |
