Forensic Odontology / Bite Mark Activities: Digital and Hands On!
Two Bite Mark activities to challenge your students: One digital and one hands-on. First, they practice their skills of bite mark analysis using digital overlays to solve a case. Then, match impressions with a fun, hands-on Bite Mark activity! Students will make their own sets of bite marks, and then identify an unknown bite mark!
Two Bite Mark activities to challenge your students: One digital and one hands-on. First, they practice their skills of bite mark analysis using digital overlays to solve a case. Then, match impressions with a fun, hands-on Bite Mark activity! Students will make their own sets of bite marks, and then identify an unknown bite mark!
Resource includes:
25 total Google Slides with instructions to guide students through the activities.
Full key for the digital activity
Three student sheets needed for the hands-on activity
Two-question Google Form survey – did everyone find the same ‘match’? Provides a great chance to discuss the subjectivity of bite mark analysis
A detailed teaching guide shows you step by step how to set up and run the activities.
Materials you will need for the Hands-On Bite Mark Activity:
Wax base plates or styrofoam (I use styrofoam cups)
Rulers
Dry erase markers
Transparencies (strips from the laminator work great)
Sandwich bags and gallon sized bags
Digital Bite Mark Activity is no prep! Easy set up for the hands on activity!
NOTE: There is no matching suspect for the digital Bite Mark activity! I understand your students may feel left hanging with no solution, but I built that in on purpose due to the very faulty nature of bite mark evidence. The intent is to entice students to force a match because they assume there must be one (similar to many bite mark cases that have sent innocent people to jail). It is a great lesson on looking at evidence with the idea that the culprit may not be in the lineup! Which I think is super important for all students to realize as they grow up – whether they become forensic scientists or citizens that may be called to jury duty!
After this lesson, I love to show students the video ‘False Positive: When Forensic Science Fails‘. It documents the struggle of a young man who is falsely incarcerated for murder based on faulty bite mark impression evidence.
Anytime I buy a resource from the Science of Curiosity, you know it’s going to be an excellent unit. This unit on forensic odontology is no exception. My students loved the lab that accompanied this unit! Everything was very well laid out and explained – very easy for a teacher new to the subject to pick up and teach. Comprehensive notes and slideshows with plenty of material to cover multiple days of discussion. – Hilary May 2, 2022
Bundle and Save! This resource is part of the Impressions Unit Bundle.
