Forensic Labs Session 2

1. What scientific ideas or theories would help you explain why you are able to use the procedure to analyze?



For the Ink is Still Wet lab we dipped the ink into achohol so that the colors could seperate and we could identitfy the different substances. I wondered why that worked though since I didn't really know myself. I also wondered though how the coloromiter was able to get information from a substance that was sealed. For the First Impressions I think we put the Pam spray on the dirt so that when the plaster dried and we had to take it off to analyze the print it would come off easy and with a clear print, not covered in dirt. For the Killer Cup of Coffee we used that formula to figure out how much poison was in the coffee so we could figure out if it was enough to actually kill the man. I don't really know the inner workings of the formula, I just did some calculations it was pretty clear how the man died.



2. How has your approach to lab procedures changed from the fist round of labs? Are you more/less confident?



In my recent labs I have become more observent with the instructions. For each lab my partner and I usually wouldn't move on until we were sure we knew what we were doing and how we were going to do it. Sometimes though we would start to run out of time and had to work fast giving us less time to wonder about the instrustions and in those cases I think I am less confident about my results. Over all though I am confident I did what was right and am confident in my results. For each lab we often asked for peers advice for what to do before going to a teacher. For example: for the The Ink is Still Wet lab we were stuck on a confusing instruction and we spent quite some time asking peers what to do, even after that though we were still confused so we went to Bert and asked for advice. I don't feel very confident unless the instructions are clear.

Hinduism Script

Hinduism Important Notes

Aiyana, Caitlin and Livvy

November 2009

Origins:

• Hinduism was originally started in the Indus Valley (In India)
• Hinduism started around 2000 BC
• 1,000 years after the start of Hinduism the Rig Veda, or religious text, was created and it added more structure and format to Hinduism.
• In the old Rig Veda there were 33 gods to start.

Practitioners:

• While the original religion started in Indus Valley, India, it has spread throughout the world, including Fiji, Trinidad, Suriname, Australia, Northern America, Southeast Asia and Britain.
• There are approximately 1,000,400,000 (one billion, four hundred million) Followers of Hinduism in the world.

Beliefs:

• There are many Hindu gods and goddesses. The three supreme gods are:
• Brahma- The Creator
• Brahma is one of the most important gods and part of the sacred trilogy. He is the creator of the universe. He is also the god of heaven and sanctuary. He has four arms and four heads.
• Vishnu- The Preserver
• Vishnu is known as the preserver of the universe. He is often resting on his giant serpent. He never sleeps and he is always in a peaceful mood. All other Hindu gods are reincarnations of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
• Shiva- The Destroyer
• Shiva is the destroyer of the universe, responsible for getting rid of evil. He takes on many avatars, like Vishnu and Brahma.

• The sacred text is called the Rig Veda and has four parts:
• The Samhitas which has prayers used in sacrifices
• The Brahamanas which explains how to perform sacrificial rituals
• The Aranyakas which teaches different types of meditation
• The Upanishads which includes the philosophical Vedic stages

Expressions:

• Prayer at home:
• Many people have a small prayer area at home with statues and candles.
• They may put fresh flowers there every day.

• Temple:
• Many people go to temple on holidays or days that are important to them. At temples people pray to many gods, but often have one special personal god.

• Other Prayers:
• Hindu’s begin important work with prayers to the god Ganesh, who is the remover of obstacles, they pray to Ganesh at the start of a new job, new studies or business. They might also pray to the Sarawati when starting studies, because she is the goddess of learning.

Festivals:

• Hindu festivals include Diwali, the most ancient festival.
• The preparation for Diwali starts several weeks before the festival.
• This festival is a warship of the goddess Laxmi.
• According to the story, Laxmi was put into a prison by Bali, the king of demons. Then, the gods asked lord Vishnu to free Laxmi from Bali. Vishnu incarnated as Vaman and freed Laxmi from the evil clutches of Bali. So, during the festival, people express their joy to Vishnu by hanging lit lamps in their house

Special Events:

Birth:

o Pregnancy is considered to be a religious activity and priest will even come to the parent's house to ensure the baby is healthy and well.

o When a baby is born ghe, melted butter, is placed on hers or his tongue, and the ears of the baby are pierced. This is said to help the baby’s memory.

o Namakarana is the naming ceremony.

o The things the baby will accomplish are based on the name.

o The parent’s goals are to give the baby a name that they can follow, and know what types of goals are set for them in the world.

Death:

o Hindu's believe in reincarnation.

o Their goal is to unite with Brahma the Supreme Being.

o Then, the soul takes one of two paths, the light road to the sun, and the dark path to the moon.

o Those who travel to the sun, never return, while those who travel the dark path do.

o Hindu's believe that death is a transition from one state to another, and that when someone dies, their power and possessions go along with them.

Weddings:

o During Hindu weddings, flowers are extremely important.

o The bride and groom exchange Varmalas, a brightly colored flower garland in addition to rings.

o These garlands symbolize their love. After a wedding, the immediate family will throw flower petals at the bride and groom instead of rice as in the American tradition.

o Indian meals are served, consisting of curry, bread, pasta dishes, bean dishes and potatoes.

o After the wedding, the food includes non-vegetarian options and alcoholic beverage.

o Then, instead of a wedding cake, the bride and groom feed each other bites of sweet food, typically yogurt and honey.

Regular food:

o Many hindu's fast on special days to show respect to the gods.

o Cows are sacred and are never to be killed

o The hide is only used if the cow died from natural causes.

o Milk, Cheese and Yogurt are said to increase "spiritual purity"

o Beans are an important food in Hindu diets, as meat is not eaten it is harder to find sources of proteins.

o Other staple food crops include rice, naan, chapatti and dhal.

Clothing:

• Men can wear normal clothing, like jeans or a tee shirt
• Many men (and woman) wear more formal clothing on holidays
• Men wear dhotis, which are long tops over lose pants. Most often the dhotis are white.
• Woman's clothing consists of…
• The Choli, a tight long or short-sleeve blouse that ends below the breasts, and is worn underneath a sari.
• The Sari, a large rectangular piece of cloth, made from cotton, silk or other man made materials. The sari comes in different textures, fibers, colors and was originally made from hand woven cloth.
• The Salwar Kameej, pants worn underneath the sari, drawn tightly around the waist and ankles.
• Many women just wear jeans and regular clothing, and save religious wear for temples or special days.

Relevance:

• Hinduism is an important religion to many people across the world
• In Hinduism, woman are suppose to be held at an equal status to men.
• Their roles differ from this expectation.
• Woman are not priest, they don’t have the same roles in religious ceremonies as men and they are not in the same place socially as their male counter parts.
• In big cities this has somewhat changed.
• But in most rural places woman get less education, they have the “stay at home jobs” and their jobs are to stay home.
• Women clean, cook, take care of their family, then get married and start all over again in their new house.
• When woman reach their teens, and if they still going to school, they will be divided from boys and sent to all girl schools, at least in the rural areas.

Forensic Labs

Firearms

1. When making inferences it’s good to make multiple experiments and observations because you might not always get every observation exact on the first observation. Like when measuring the diameter of the bullet, sometimes we had to measure again just to make sure we were correct.

2. It was hard to be precise when measuring, and when we were not confident our measurements were correct we did multiple observations.

3. When we had to identify our bullet we could rely on known data because we knew that if it was, say, a 9mm that all 9mm have to same measurements. We never really had to make up our own data, we just had to do measurements and compare data.

Fibers

1. We had to make multiple observations in the microscope when looking at the fibers, so we could get a better idea of how to draw them. Also when burning the fibers we would have to burn once or twice so we could see everything it did in the flame. Doing multiple observations helped give a sense of each fiber’s characteristics.

2. It was hard to be precise when observing the fibers under the microscope and drawing them. When it came to deciding the criminal it was hard to match up the unknown fiber to the other known fibers. We had to keep in mind that we probably weren’t correct.

3. We never had known data we could rely on and had to make our own data. We had to record what happened to the fibers but we couldn’t compare to other known data.

Soil

1. We did multiple observations when looking at the ph and water conductivity so our answers were more exact.

2. It was hard to be precise when measuring the exact amount of soil that we needed. Most of the time we were a bit off, we didn’t think it changed our results that much so we weren’t worried about it.

3. We didn’t have known data about each soil so we had to generate data about the soil. We got data like the ph levels, water conductivity, and the water absorbency of the soil. The difference from known data and data you have to generate is that known data is data that has already been generated by someone else, and when there is no data you can compare to then you have to generate your own.