Forensic identification - a scientific summer activity for youth in Bar Ilan

Do the police manage to solve all the crimes? Is it possible to avoid punishment for a crime? What are the traces left at the crime scene? How can suspects in the criminal act be identified by them? These were some of the questions the children asked the instructors at the opening ceremony of the summer activity on the "criminal identification" of "science-seeking youth" at Bar Ilan University

The children, who are exposed to the Internet and closely follow the news in Israel, soon realize that criminal acts are commonplace. On the morning of the first day of activity, the children woke up to a new week with headlines in the media, announcing a father who murdered his three children. The children showed great concern for his fate: "Could he escape punishment?", they asked, "Is a mental problem a way to escape punishment?" Undoubtedly, the children are disturbed and even afraid that the police are at a loss and the crime could very well pay off.

In the "Science Seeking Youth" unit, which holds fascinating science classes for children and youth all year round, they took the challenge seriously and worked hard on a special program for a scientific summer activity entitled "Forensics". For 10 days, the children will get a broad idea of ​​the activities of the police, the police, the secret service and the courts - all of which are involved in solving crimes by collecting scientific data at the crime scene and deciphering it in the most sophisticated laboratories.

Graduate students in the fields of: nanotechnology, robotics, law, medicine, zoology, biotechnology, physics, cryptography, mathematical thinking, and chemistry, will examine together with the children the most modern means in science that are an integral part of the work of the researchers in the police laboratories: inventions of blood stains, etc. NA at the crime scene; fingerprint detection and matching to the suspect; determination of blood type at the crime scene; decrypting encrypted messages; identification of drugs and drugs in blood; detection of explosives; the structure of the brain and how people become addicted to drugs; Robots that identify suspects based on skin tone; programming robots in the police service; building clusters with the latest software in the police service; developing the sense of smell to identify dangerous substances and drugs and the use of dogs to locate the criminals' inventions; determining the cause of death; Game theory and assistance in guessing the criminal's next moves; photographing, documenting and analyzing crime scenes; forensic medicine; incompetence to stand trial; Court hearing on the question of insanity;

"The topic of forensic identification allows a glimpse of the most advanced science on which the work of the police, the secret service and the justice system depends. Today's children are smarter and exposed to the real world in which the hidden is more than the visible. Our goal is to enrich the children with information that will help them deal with reality, challenge them to advanced scientific thinking and attract them to the fascinating scientific world. By enriching them with an intellectual scientific experience, we provide them with an important toolbox for understanding and orientation in the real world," says Hadassah Feisman, director of the 'Unit for Youth Seeking Science', who initiated and produced the unique summer activity.