Crime Busters B

[Galahad]

Agreed, Dan. I have spoken with our students regarding what they really need and what they can definitely live without. Unfortunately, there are a lot of teams with novice members who will be overwhelmed by that amount of materials. The last time I saw the amount of glassware on that list was when I took my family on a tour of the Pyrex factory complex, on the banks of the Monongahela River in PA!!

I can vouch for this, but I mean we had to use 40 test tubes at nats haha.

But we've NEVER touched our spot plate, petri dish, or microscope slides

40 test tubes?? Even a "series" of serial dilutions (which should ideally be done in a spot plate, anyhoo!) should not use that many. So why?

The blue dye stained the test tubes and we had to make ~20 mL of a 1:2890 solution. It would've taken forever to rinse and redo everything 5 times.

[Anapolis]

I am kinda stressed about this event. Is there an easy way to determine whether the hair is dog/cat/human?

just find common patterns or aspects of the hairs. for example cat hair has a very distinct medulla, while dog hairs have ovoid bodies, etc. I would recommend looking at different hairs under the microscope, or even searching up pictures of the hairs.

dont be stressed about this event, its actually one of the easier events imo because you dont really have to study or memorize that many things, take advantage of your 5 cheat sheets, put a lot of pictures of hairs if you struggle with them.

[Incineroar999]

Tips and tricks for this event please.
Anything appreciated

[pHsavvy]

Tips and tricks for this event please.
Anything appreciated

I would highly recommend splitting the work between you and your partner based on your strengths and weaknesses so you have time and are more likely to do well. So if one of your team members is really good at identifying fingerprints and you are good at chromatography, each do that task during the competition. Decide which one's you'll be in charge of before the competition!

[mustardsammich]

Which should I study harder, blood stains or ph?

[pHsavvy]

Which should I study harder, blood stains or ph?

I would say pH, since it's more common and useful, but stains could also be useful depending on the test. Just to be safe, do both!

[Anapolis]

Which should I study harder, blood stains or ph?

would honestly say neither, blood stains rarely come up on low level tests and u dont need to know that much about ph other than the most basic and most acidic liquid on our list. Instead u should focus on hair, powders, or dna.

[ledwards003]

Hello. I am looking for some tips for Crime Busters. Anything is appreciated.

I suggest you look up history and such to put on your cheat sheet. For example, you should know who the father of fingerprinting is. Practice chemicals as much as possible, always read the instructions on the test, and make sure you get something down for the essay!! Essays are important, please always remember to write your analysis it is so so important

[ledwards003]

Don't use paragraphs for the analysis.
Event supervisors hate it (coming from an actual crime ES). It's really disorganized and unnecessary to write a paragraph on something that can be listed. What we did (and got rather high points for, other than the 2018 nats test which forced us to write short sentences here and there [AND DIDNT EVEN GIVE US ENOUGH ROOM]) was use a list format rather. I'd write each suspects name and if they're guilty or not. I'd then write supporting evidence to that verdict.

Ex.

Given that yeast, dog hair, aluminum, and other evidence was found at the crime scene.

Jake - Innocent
---
- Works as an accountant, no reason to have yeast
- Shoeprints do not match
- Fingerprints do not match
- Blood samples do not match
- Does not own a dog, owns a cat

Poppy - Guilty
---
- Works as a sheet metal worker, aluminum was found at the crime scene
- Shoeprints match those found
- Fingerprints match those found
- Blood samples match those found
- Owns a dog


Finally, don't panic.
Crime has got to be the most stressful event I've ever competed in. Not only because of the fast paced mixing and testing, but because of the extreme time crunch toward the end. Only on around 40% of my practices I had extra time after finishing up the analysis. But don't stress.
Stressing causes you to be not careful, my biggest flaw as a "crime buster". Stop focusing on the clock, but on what you have to do.
50 minutes is A LOT OF TIME, don't waste it with stress or mistakes.

Ah I'm going to miss this event. Conflicts with Herpetology

Just relax, focus on what you have to do, and keep it simple. You'll do great with practice and experience.

idk man I feel like the event supervisors are expecting the competitors to write a multi-paragraph analysis, not only on the prime suspect but also on why the other suspects didn't commit the crime. We never had an issue with this and often finished with time to spare. My advice is to split up the work, meand my partner each found our strengths and focused on completing our tasks separately, (dont both do id, multitasking is very helpful!!!) we only conferred with eachother when something was reAlly sus (yeast in a mixture at nats i Am def not salty but also the entire nats test in general, again not salty at all). I completely trusted my partners ability and we often found ourselves finishing with time to spare, so i could go over the analysis and clean up (clean up!!). Also think about how you can maximize the efficiency of what you are doing, if something takes a while (chromatography) do it immediately, focus on id before answering the follow up questions, stuff like that really helps quicken the test taking process. maybe focus on finding ur strengths in this event, i was really good at iding really fast (look test lol) so thats basically all i did and my partner (carried me) did analysis.

Actually, a lot of event supervisors like list formats much more than paragraphs. I was told a billion times by my coach to write in a list format, and I’ve had event supervisors write on my tests that they loved the way I wrote my analysis when I wrote it in a list format. It is something the supervisors prefer and it is usually a lot faster to write. If at the end you want to add a paragraph explaining why X is the criminal then you can, but it is best to write everything else out in a list.

[ledwards003]

How important is it to have the kit? Can I gather all the items we need without buying the $200 kit?
Thoughts?

You definitely do not need a $200 kit, I promise