Bear Cub Scout Forensics Requirements

With everything going on in the world, we are keeping our Cub Scouts going virtually. We have had a lot of fun with our scouts. We keep them engaged in virtual meetings focused on an advancement (mostly electives now) or a Nova Award. Our scouts really love Nova Awards. To learn more about planning for Nova Awards, see our Cub Scout Nova Awards post. For our next meeting, we are focusing on the Bear Scout Forensics Adventure.

Bear Scout Forensics Agenda

The Bear Scout Forensics Adventure focuses on introducing the scouts to the area of forensics to improve their observational skills. During this adventure, the scouts will look for clues and solve a situation with those clues in a kid friendly way. Once the scouts complete the forensics requirements they will earn the Bear Scout Forensics Adventure belt loop to wear on their uniform belt.

Discussion with a Police Officer

For the Bear Scout Forensics advancement, we began our meeting with a discussion. We asked one of our leaders, who is also a police office and evidence technician, to talk with the scouts. However, if you do not have access to a police officer, you can call your local police or sheriff’s department. Ask if you can hold a meeting at the police station and have a police officer speak with your scouts. On the other hand, you could ask if a police officer would be willing to attend your Bear Scout den meeting.

Our leader covered part 1, how forensics is used to solve crimes. Additionally, he spoke about part 4, find out how officers collect evidence and the different jobs in forensics. He brought in pictures of actual crime scene evidence and how the detectives catalogue the pictures. Some of the photos even showed the different angles and pictures that the detectives take as well as different materials that the detectives use for gathering evidence.

The scouts were very inquisitive about the science and crime scenes shared. Our officer shared nothing beyond a third grader’s comprehension. Some of their questions definitely tried to go into specifics about more graphic crime scenes, but our leader did amazing keeping it simple and safe. Most police officers will be sensitive to your scouts age, but it’s also okay to contact the police officer to share more about specific situations or requirements.

Crime Scene Investigation for the Bear Scout Forensics Advancement

We then moved onto our Bear Scout Forensics crime scene investigation. For Forensics parts 2 and 3, we put together a little crime scene for the scouts to investigate and solve. Putting together the materials was pretty simply and not too expensive either. We used mostly one use materials but if you are purchasing this for your pack, you could definitely purchase more sturdy materials for your Bear Scout den to use each year.

The crime scene investigation was loved by our scouts. So many smiles during the meeting and they definitely solved the crime. What smarties! Our crime began with a note left at a pack meeting about needing to borrow our Pack Cub Master’s hat. However, the name on the bottom of the note was mysteriously cut off from the note. Our amazing den leaders found the note and gathered the samples that our scouts used for this investigation.

Evidence Samples

This was the most time consuming and expensive part of the Bear Scout forensics adventure. And even so it only cost us about $10 and 2 days wait for materials to be delivered from Amazon. We did use many every day ingredients that we had in our home already, so this may raise the cost a little. But most of these ingredients are rather cheap and the quantities that we used were so small.

Preparation

The scouts each had a brown paper bag filled with the evidence collected. Including, the samples collected from their den leaders (or whoever the suspects you decide). We provided each scout 2 containers each of 1 tsp salt, sugar, baking soda, and corn starch, AND 2 containers of 1 tsp. of the evidence collected at the pack meeting. The evidence collected at the crime scene was either salt, sugar, baking soda, or corn starch. Just don’t tell the scouts!

Each scout also received 1 container of 1 Tbsp. of water and vinegar each, AND 2 pipettes. We provided 2 containers of salt, sugar, baking soda, corn starch and the evidence so that the scouts could add water to one container and add vinegar to the other container. This kept the mess down for a virtual meeting, but you could easily have the scouts scoop out some of each item to add the water or vinegar.

We used 2 oz. plastic portion cups and pipettes found on Amazon for the forensics adventure. Be sure to purchase 12 2 oz. plastic cups and 2 pipettes for each scout. If you plan to ask the scouts to scoop out the salt, sugar, baking soda, corn starch, and evidence, you could use only 7 of the 2 oz. plastic cups.

Procedure

During the meeting, we began with Forensics part 3B, where the scouts analyzed four different substances to figure out which one was most like the evidence collected. The cub scout book suggests using salt, sugar, baking soda, and corn starch. These all look for visually different, so it was easy for our scouts to visually identify the evidence, but they still enjoyed trying each of the investigations.

The scouts compared the evidence sample to the salt, sugar, baking soda, and corn starch samples by looking at the samples, feeling the samples, adding water and then adding vinegar to each sample to see which one reacted the most similar to the evidence collected. The water and vinegar were so much fun for the scouts!

The scouts loved using the pipettes to add the vinegar and water to their samples and seeing how they reacted. Our suspect definitely had a little bit of a sweet tooth, but they could have easily been cleaning with baking soda, baking some corn bread, or eating salty pretzels or chips. You pick what best fits your suspect.

*If you want to make this a little more challenging visually, try switching our the corn starch for baking powder. The baking powder and baking soda look similar but will react differently to the water and vinegar test. Both will make a little volcano reaction! The salt and sugar look similar too, but definitely smell and feel different. This helps to make the challenge a little more fun for the scouts.

Chromatography Investigation

We used paper chromatography for this investigation. This technique separates colored mixtures into its separate components using water. We actually spent no additional money for this part of the investigation since we had plenty of left over envelopes and lots of paper towels in our home. Additionally, we have so many different black markers to choose from for the investigation. We did ask each child to provide their own cup, but you could easily supply the cups too.

Preparation

Next, we moved onto Forensics part 3A. We used chromatography to explore the note left at the pack meeting. Each scout needs a sample of the note and a sample from each suspect.

Our samples were very simple, but you could definitely use actual words on the samples too. We cut up white paper towels (but coffee filters work too) into strips about 1 inch by 5 inches. We folded the paper towel strip about 1.5 inches from the top. On the back of the folded side, we wrote evidence or one of the suspects’ names in blue pen. Try not to use black to change the results of the chromatography. This helped to keep the evidence clearly labeled for the scouts.

We assigned a different black marker for each of the suspects. Then on the front of the note, we draw a single line about 1.5 inch from the bottom using the subject’s black marker. For this, we used a sharpie marker, vis a vis marker, Crayola washable marker, and Mr. Sketch scented marker.

Nonpermanent black markers definitely work best and each brand has a different chromatography pattern. Expo and sharpies tend not to separate, so try not to use both of these. Be sure to have the guilty suspect and the evidence sample use the same marker.

Procedure

The scouts needed a cup or two with about 1 inch of water in the bottom. If the cup is large, the scout will need to add more water to the bottom for the paper towel to reach the water. If needed, the scouts can always refold the paper towel to allow it to reach the water.

The scouts then placed the paper towel strip so that the bottom of the paper towel was barely touching the water in the cup. They need to make sure that the black writing or line doesn’t actually go into the water, but instead, the water travels up the paper towel to the black line or writing.

We placed 2 – 4 paper tower strips in each cup but you could definitely have one cup per paper towel strip. Then the scouts watched as the chromatography took place and the different black inks separated into the different components of the ink. The process doesn’t take very long to work and actually starts to show results rather quickly. However, you may wish to begin the fingerprint investigation and then circle back to the chromatography results.

Fingerprint Investigation

Finally, we concluded with Forensics part 2: analyzing fingerprints. This investigation didn’t cost us anything, since we had all the supplies already. These included the evidence fingerprinting cards, fingerprint ink and envelopes. If you need to purchase supplies, you could use notecards for the fingerprints and any ink pad. Thus making this investigation cost less than $5.

Preparation

We happened to have a police officer who could get some evidence fingerprinting cards, but you could easily use a notecard and an ink pad too. Just have everyone use the same ink or have everyone, including the evidence sample have a different color ink. This prevents your scouts from solving the crime by the color of the ink alone.

Have each suspect use the same finger for their print, or feel free to print each finger on the same hand. Be sure to include a second set for the guilty suspect as the evidence collected from the pack meeting. The scouts will need the evidence sample to match one of the fingerprints collected.

Procedure

Our scouts examined the suspects’ fingerprints and compared them to the evidence collected. We discussed the three most common types of fingerprints and let the scouts analyze each fingerprint. To make this a little more engaging, you could withhold the fingerprints gathered from the note until after analyzing the suspect’s fingerprints. Once your scouts have analyzed the suspect’s fingerprints, then introduce the fingerprints from the collected evidence to determine the guilty party.

Our scouts were able to figure out the guilty leader by the end of the chromatography session, but they still enjoyed exploring the fingerprints and seeing that the same person matched for all three investigations. Of course our guilty suspect found the hat that needed to be returned. To add to your meeting, you could always ask the Pack Cub Master to make an appearance and show the note with the missing signature and ask the scouts to help him figure out who has his hat.

We concluded our Forensics Advancement meeting with the regular notes, but then provided extra time for the scouts to ask questions to our leader expert. It was quite amazing to see the questions that came up after their investigation and how this relates back to the work police officers do. Have you completed the Bear Scout Forensics Adventure? We’d love to hear your favorite tips and ideas. Looking for more scouting ideas, join our community below.

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Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.