LETTER TO ME

This year i have learned how to properly use and involve literary devices. When Chris and i made the video on gun control, i feel as though we were really creative with what we did. I am most proud of my college essay because i describe who i am in it. The thing that challenged me the most was finding the motive to write. I have never been a fan of writing so finding a reason to start and continue was difficult. I wish i would have known that taking the AP test wold have given me an easier final. My only goal for next year is to get through it and graduate so that i can move on with my life.

My Life

Looking outside my home, into my neighborhood, I am surrounded by friendly older folk who are warm and welcoming. There was never a shortage of cats roaming around the area and dogs barking at said cats. The roads around the neighborhood were calm and steady when it came to traffic, which kept the neighborhood quite peaceful. This was what it was like in my neighborhood. Living in this neighborhood helped teach me about the simple kindness that is possible in this world.

However, my home was not as peaceful. Being the second oldest of five siblings, all unfortunately being girls, that left me as the mediator of the house. It also left me feeling a bit lonely which contributed to my social personality trait. Growing up in a house full of girls, also instilled in me the feeling of protection of my sisters and household in general. This protective trait is one of the reasons I want to join the military because I would like to protect and serve the country. My family’s pet situation contributed to the not so peaceful environment because we have gone through two dogs (one of which ran away, the other we had to put down) and are currently home to six dogs total now.

My parental situation during most of my childhood was difficult because I lacked a father in my life due to his multiple international tours in the army. My mom was the one who helped to raise my sisters and I, which made her the true mediator in the household but also made me the man of the house. Without my dad in the house, I was taught to be independent and self-reliant. I was also put a leadership position to watch over my younger sisters. Watching my dad serve our country made me want to follow in his footsteps.

Overall my neighborhood and home life impacted and shaped me to be the social, protective, but kind person I am today. I hope that I can continue to take my home life experiences and grow stronger as a person.

Proposal

I will be responding to the promt about where I was raised. I am choosing this promt because it seemed a little easier for me to go over. I will be making a video. To get this done I will start working right away.

My story

Spatter not splatter

Blood spatter analysis is an interpretation of blood stains in order to recreate what caused the bloodshed. It uses size, shape, location and distribution in order to trace it back. 

This graphs shows the comparison of the height from which a blood drop is dropped from and the diameter of the drop. A trend we see is that a higher height leads to a bigger diameter. We did see the same results as the “conventional wisdom” that the higher the height the larger the diameter. Because of the Height of the blood droplet the greater the acceleration is due to the force of gravity therefore making the impact larger and the diameter larger as well. We found an equation that could lead to our findings which is Y= .025X + 1.16

 
My second graph is a comparison between width&Length and Angle of the blood drop. A trend we see is that if we have a larger angle we will receive a larger width&length. We found an equation for this graph as well which is Y= -0.125X + 1.10 

In order to determine the direction from which the blood drop originated you have to trace back  by drawing a vertical line through the middle of the blood spatter to the tail. In order to determine the point of impact you just have to trace all the tails from your blood stains and once you have a point where all the lines meet, you have your point. Direction and convergence are important because it can show where someone was when they began bleeding and to trace back the suspects “footsteps.” 

I learned that a few simple drops of blood are able to tell an entire story of a crime scene just by location, shape, size and distribution of them. The only question I have is if blood spatter analysis has ever been wrong before. 

Blog post 3: blood splatter

The goal of today’s demonstration was to determine the point of origin for blood splatter. We found that the point of origin was northwest of where the blood splatters were.  

 We used a ruler to trace back the bigger droplets with a bigger length of blood back to a direct point in the middle. 

The Case of the Bicycle Burgler

Well, Joe and I collected soil then we use forensic techniques with soap and water in order to get the soil we found separated into sand, silt and clay. After a comparison of the soil that the police had given us, we found the criminal who stole the bike.

The purpose of this investigation is to show how soil can be used in forensics investigations and catch dangerous criminals. Last week Joe and I went to the front of the school and collected 2 soil samples, 1 next to the building itself and the other across in this patch of sandy near the parking lot. We used both soils and compared them to the soil that the police found and determine where the bike was.

Soil is important to forensics investigations because certain soil can be found in specific areas linking things and people to crime scenes. The 4 major soil categories are sand, clay, silt and loam. You can determine the type or texture of soil using the texture triangle. Chemical tests can tell you the percentages of how much sand, clay and/or silt is in the type of soil.

 Our soil we collected is labeled “My soil” and the crime scene soil is labeled “C.S.” Visually the soils are different in color and in the amount of rocks. Our soil felt more sand like and the crime scene soil felt more like dirt.

 This is a soil texture triangle. It shows how much of what soil is in it and what type of texture it is. The blue dot is the crime scene while the red dot is the soil we collected. These textures are not similar. Therefore the soil samples are not the same.

 This is our chemical comparison table that compares the pH level and the texture of the 2 soils. In the sense of the pH the soils do match, both being at an 8 level. However the texture of the soils are not a match.

In conclusion, our soil did not match with the soil found at the crime scene. However we did find the same soil on the shoes of a student by the name of Jacob Limon. I learned that soil actually plays a big part of forensics investigations due to the fact that it can link people to a crime scene. I also learned that Jacob is a criminal. The only question that i have about the soil analysis is why the pH levels matched. The next step of the investigation should be to hunt down Jacob Limon, arrest him and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the Law!

Did Dan Done it?

Upon arriving at the crime scene my team and i began comparing the gun casings to the casings coincidentally found in Officer Dan’s home. What we found…… would change the course of history forever.

7 bodies were found, all victims of a mass shooting. Bullet casing were found leading to many different guns. Ballistics is the area of forensics that has to do with firearms such as why they are used, how they are used and why are they normally used in murder. Guns and ammunition are classified by their caliber or gauge. Also handguns and rifles leave behind bullet casings which are classified as caliber while shotguns leave Shells which are classified as gauge. To analyze ballistic evidence we use the individual markings on the bullet such as the rifling marks or on the casing looking at the firing pin marks.

We found handgun casings and shotgun shells. It was used ammunition therefore it had already been fired. We had a .44, .45 casings,  12 gauge, 223 used casing and a 245 colt bullet. We came to the conclusion that the .45 casing and the bullet were found to be the type of gun used to kill the victim. We used the firing pin marks to match up the casing found at the scene and at officer Dans house.

There were 3 wounds on the victims head. There is 1 entrance wound in the front and 1 exit wound in the back. On the left side of the Vic there seems to be a mark there the bullet hit the Vic but did not cause the death.

 Based on the wounds a .45 magnum was used to execute the victim. We determined this by the size of the wound and the size of the bullet. The GSR or gun shot residue was left very close to the victim telling us that they were shot at very close range. The bullet went straight through the head leaving a straight entrance and exit wound. This just goes to show that the Victim was Executed in a hateful manner.

With all the coincidental evidence that points to officer Dan i do not believe he is involved. Being a former marine and my mentor since i joined the force, he had no motive to kill these people. I have learned that different caliber firearms can leave very different wounds. I am still uncertain that Dan did this. Everybody is against him right now, but not I. The next step of this investigation should be to find a connection between the victims and another suspect because this seems like a case out of pure hatred.

TechNOlogy

Teachers and parents get headaches from it. Everyone gets distracted by it. I am talking, of course about technology. It’s in the class rooms, at home and even in the cars on the street. But is all this technology a distraction in our schools?? The website beyondthebooksmart.com, mentions from Dr. Larry Rosen stating that based on an experiment he did for 15 minutes on a group of students to study something important, “After 3 minutes students begin to lose focus” and that about “80% of students report they switch between studying and technology.”  His study proves that students are getting distracted from their school work because of technology. (Names of students are protected by My rules which are written on a dry erase board in my room.)

A student is on his phone rather than working on a project that is worth 80% of his grade.

This student would rather check his email than write his essay for college.

After failing 2 classes this student decides that Twitter is more important during lunch than tutoring.

This student is on Twitter as well rather than working on his photo essay!

He thinks he is slick however my camera catches this villain not reading but texting!

Look who’s playing games now!!

I guess Luke Christopher (music artist) is more important than her essay…

Really!?! His essay is right there! But he’s playing doodle jump instead… Wow…

A selfie while while the teacher is talking??? OMG!

Look!! Even I got distracted because I looked so fantastic!!! I’m suppose to be doing my photo essay but hey…. Selfies right??
Schools have a rule that students can not have their phones out. But if it’s not phones then its tablets and computers and so on and so on.. We can not stop using technology all together… HOWEVER we can limit the time that students are allowed on their phones as well as make more consequences for it.

Solving the candy thief case

Every human has them. They are seen all over tv. They are unique to everybody. What are they You may ask. They are the most fantastic, amazing and just straight up awesome things in the whole wide world. I am talking of course about fingerprints!

Fingerprints play a major role in forensics science, mainly because they are used to solve cases and lead to suspects. They are separated into latent which are not visible until powder is used, patent which is a visible fingerprint and plastic which is a fingerprint that you can find made of soft material such as clay or soft dried paint. When looking at fingerprints forensic scientist look for the minutiae which are small details in the fingerprint. For example the loop, whorl or arch of a fingerprint. And to be even more smaller to scale the ridge endings or bifurcations (fork).

For my forensics team and I, which consisted of myself (Dr. Flores), Dr. Dubard, Dr. Galarza and Dr. Gonzales, we were faced with finding the thief who took candy from Mr. Caters candy jar. This thief was not a very smart one as they left behind many fingerprints. My team and I used florescent powder, fiberglass brush and a black light in order to make the prints stand out. We used our super top secret tape in order to lift the prints.

We compared the ending ridges, island ridges, eyes, bifurcations and the bridge to get 7 exact same minutiae on both prints. We also compared the thumb prints and index prints first on the right hand first however the right hand is what we ended up creating a match to Ivy Gates.

In the end My forensics team and i found Ivy Gates in her apartment dead of sugar overdose. She had Mr. caters candy rappers scattered throughout the apartment. Through this experience ive learned how to lift prints, check minutiae, and compare finger prints to find the match of the guilty party!