Inferencing/ Drawing Conclusions Fingerprint Analysis

I start this lesson by giving each student a blank fingerprint. You can find these by clicking here: Fingerprint Analysis on TPT They are to write something about themselves at each line. They might choose to write about their family, sports, favorite color, favorite food, etc. I ran copies of all of the fingerprints when they were finished so that EACH group had a class set to sort. I copied them 4 to a page…one sided. Next, I will choose a fingerprint to build a crime scene around. After choosing a fingerprint that can be easily represented I go home and collect items for evidence.

The next day I set up the crime scene in my classroom! I grouped my students into groups of three. I selected groups to view the crime scene and they had to record each piece of evidence. I told students not to draw conclusions YET! Just record evidence. When they had each piece of evidence recorded I moved them to their “suspect board.” Here they began their discussions about each piece of evidence. They were to infer about our suspect based on the evidence, so:

fork-likes to eat

books-likes to read, plays basketball (one book is a basketball book)

baseball– plays baseball, likes sports, is a pitcher

cup-drinks coffee, likes drinks, was thirsty

game controller-plays video games

Next, students highlight anything on each fingerprint that matches the crime scene in ANY way. If there are lots of items highlighted they place this fingerprint under SUSPECTS. If there are not many things highlighted, they place this fingerprint under NOT SUSPECTS. Some groups decided to make a MAYBE pile and went back to those later. After highlighting and sorting each fingerprint, students then sift back through their suspects and pick ONE.