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  • Kaley Patterson, 10, Makenzie Hoskins, 9, and Alisa Friesen, 10, dust a bottle for fingerprints during a crime scene investigation demonstration put on by Curt Terry of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. The three girls are among 64 4-H students who participated in the event as part of their 3-day camp this week at Northwestern Baptist Association Campground near Vici. Photo by Michelle Seeber

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June 24, 2010

4-H campers play detective

Michelle Seeber Woodward News

Woodward, Okla. — Dasan Gillenwater got think to like a detective for a few hours Wednesday morning.

The Mooreland 13-year-old dusted for fingerprints, matched the ends of broken pencils and  lifted dust from a shoe print.

He also hunted for empty shell casings in the grass, marked where they fell, and identified handwriting.

Gillenwater and 63 other 4-H students were taking part in a demonstration led by Curt Terry of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) during a 4-H summer camp.

Terry was introducing the campers to the art of investigating a crime scene on the final morning of their 3-day stay at the Northwestern Baptist Association Campground near Vici.

They watched as Terry showed them how to make a plaster cast of a shoe impression and how to make silly putty casts of markings left behind by tools, such as a screw driver or hammer.

He also showed the campers how investigators must match the ends of tape used to tie someone up. Matching the end of a piece of tape to the roll it came from can help determine who tied the person up, Terry said.

He explained that matching the broken ends of the pencils was like matching the ends of the tape and that these kinds of tasks are what investigators do.

The program was put on for youths who ranged in age from 9- to 18-years-old, said sponsor Melanie Matt of the OSU Extension Office.

“We did this because they watch so many television shows about it, and 4-H is trying to put an emphasis on science and technology, since that’s where they feel careers will take off in the future,” Matt said.

During the previous 2 days of camp, the youths completed a kit to learn the science behind DNA and made bread and homemade jelly to learn science in the kitchen, Matt said.

Kyle Kizer, 12, another camper from Mooreland, explained that the group also created DNA.

“We blended up sweet peas with meat tenderizer, then put alcohol in it in a test tube and shook it up and it showed the DNA,” Kizer said. “It was really cool.”

They also re-enacted the game of Clue, Matt said.

“Everybody had to figure out the clues and the counselors dressed up like characters in the game,” Gillenwater said.

Matt said the game was a way of getting the children to interact while learning how an investigator thinks.

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