Celebrate National Science Week 2016 with us!
In celebration of National Science Week (August 13th to August 21st, 2016), we will be posting one cool experiment to do with your child or sibling to do every day this week. They are great learning tools, very simple to prepare, and are sure to excite their growing brains. From astronomy to genetics, we will explore many very different types of sciences so you can discover where your passion lies.
Here is a brief snippet of what is in store for you this week:
Today – Learning about Fingerprints
Tomorrow – Build your own telescope
August 15th (Mon) – Counterfeit Detection
August 16th (Tues) – Moon Phases Activity
August 17 (Wed) – Testing Water
August 18 (Thurs) – Fruits at large
August 19 (Fri) – Make your own Solar System
August 20 (Sat) – Looking at Hair
August 21 (Sun) – Supertasters
Remember to ‘like’ our Facebook page so you can stay up to date on the latest National Scienceweek experiment. If you have any questions about these experiments, feel free to comment down below or simply send an email to support@opticscentral.com.au.
Day 1 – Learning about Fingerprints
Fingerprints are very important and useful parts of the human body. Not only do they help us grip and hold onto things, they are completely unique to us. This means that they can be used to identify us. Furthermore, fingerprints are also very valuable because they are easy to create and harder to prevent. You can also find them everywhere – whenever you touch something, you will leave a fingerprint which tells people that you have been there. This is why they are especially useful to the police when they are looking for suspects as fingerprints are easily made and very difficult to manipulate so criminals cannot cheat this system.
Despite the fact that fingerprints are completely unique, fingerprints do share similar patterns that can helps us group them into certain types. There are three main patterns you can find in all fingerprints – loops, whorls and arches. You can find arches in about 5%, loops in 60-70% and whorls in 25-35% of all fingerprint patterns. Deltas are also found in some fingerprints but they are not really an identifying factor. Deltas refer to the divergent lines near the centre of the finger and can be found in loops and whorls, but not in arches.
| Loops | Whorls | Arches | Deltas |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Image Credit: Crime Scene Forensics, LLC http://www.crimescene-forensics.com/Fingerprints.html
Now it’s time for you to find out more about your own fingerprints. In this short experiment, we will make our own microscope slides which you can use to look for whorls, arches and loops in your own fingerprints. You can even take samples of your friends, brothers, sisters or parents fingerprints so you can find out where the differences and similarities are.
Fingerprints Experiment
Materials
- Plastic Tape
- Magnifying glass
- Black paper
Instructions
- Press your finger onto the sticky side of some clear plastic tape.
- Stick the plastic tape onto a sheet of black paper underneath the slide
- Observe your slide under a magnifying glass.
Activity
- Draw out your fingerprint.
- Which patterns can you see?
- What are the differences between fingerprint and someone else’s?
For more help or information, feel free to contact us at support@opticscentral.com.au or leave a message in the comment section below. Don’t forget to ‘Like’ our Facebook page to get updates about the kid-friendly activities we have in store for you this National Scienceweek!