We started the day off in the special exhibit that they had.  It was a CSI exhibit.  You wait in a  line and are given paper to record the facts from your crime scene.

Paper for the crime scene

 Then you are taken into a room and briefed on what to do, and then the real fun begins.  You are taken to your crime scene and told to note the things you see, you have a place on your paper where you can draw in the things from your scene.  Ours was a lady laying by a dumpster, her purse was on the ground and it’s contents spilled out, a little bag of some white substance was laying on the ground, and she had tire marks on her, there was no blood and there was a fly on her arm.  After going over the crime scene you head back to the labs.  This is where you start checking your evidence.  They had cool computers that showed things like who the girl’s last text message was from, 

Seeing who the last message was on the cell phone

there was also a place to find out who’s prints were on the picture found at the scene

Drake looking for fingerprints

They had four different patterns of tire tread to match to the cast from the crime scene

Matching tire tread

Another thing that they could investigate was when “Penny” died.  They had a microscope with a larve fond on Penny’s body. She had been killed 3 days before her body was found. 

Figuring out when she died

We then found out that Penny wasn’t her real name. So we got to try and match a DNA chart from Penny to Parents who had missing children.  Penny’s real name ended up being Lucy Cannelli.  Penny Golden was her stage name. She had run away from home at 14.

Everyone writing down the real name

ONe of the last things that you do is get a medical examiner report.  they did an awesome job at this part.  they had a table with a dummy lying on it and a projector over head made it look like you were right there for the whole thing!  A screen on the back wall had the dr talking to you and you could see everything he was talking about on the dummy.  

Medical Examiner Report

At the end you file your report.  So our case:  Penny Golden AKA Lucy Cannelli met up with a friend on the evening of May 4th and was given some drugs that she took.  If you remember me mentioning that there was no blood on the victim, yet she had been run over by a car.  This is because she was already dead when the car ran over her.  She had died from drug overdose, or the combination of drugs and alcohol.  Her friend, Diana was the last person to see her and had given her the drugs!  So Diana was arrested for selling illegal drugs.  

The whole thing was an awesome experience and look into the life of a forensic scientist.  I really enjoyed it.  

The California Science Center is free.  The CSI exhibit will be there until April 26, 2009.  If you are interested in this kind of stuff or just want to check it out.  The rest of the museum was great fun also.  there are a lot of interactive things for kids to do.  It is open from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.  You can bring a picnic lunch and only spend money on gas and any souvenirs you might buy.  

The rest of the pics can be viewed in an album on the pictures page!  :)