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Activities | Putting a finger on it – the loops and whorls of biometrics

  • Behind the News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
    • ID card – students investigate the potential legal, social and ethical problems associated with biometrics and a national ID card.

  • Double Helix (CSIRO Australia)
    • Spy science – how to make a plaster cast of a footprint and how to use chromatography to compare inks.

  • National Institute of Forensic Science (Australia)
    • Activities on fingerprints – a range of activities that involve developing and comparing fingerprints. (Be sure to follow the caution about the use of chemicals.)

  • Newton's Apple (USA)
    • Murder mystery – students make and compare fingerprints and plaster casts of footprints.
    • FBI crime lab – information about fingerprints and an activity on how to make fingerprints using a pencil and cellophane tape.
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Page updated November 2006.

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