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[Isis2014] wrote:Hey. This is my first year doing Crime Busters...Any tips?!? or things to remember?!?!

This is where science meets performing arts. Practice everything thoroughly. Make good use of the two cheat sheets, but don't in any way rely on them because they will not perform the ID for you.

yea thats what my partner nd i started doing. thnx

Does anyone have a chart for the burn test results of fibers?

Also, for burn tests, will regional level competitions ask to identify the specific type of fiber (cotton, nylon, polyester, silk, etc.), or just the category (vegetable, animal, synthetic)?

Audacious wrote:Does anyone have a chart for the burn test results of fibers?

Also, for burn tests, will regional level competitions ask to identify the specific type of fiber (cotton, nylon, polyester, silk, etc.), or just the category (vegetable, animal, synthetic)?

If it's at all possible, you and your partner should make your own chart for burn test results. This allows you to have your own observations about how the fibers burn so that you can quickly determine burn characteristics.

As for regional level competitions, the test should have you identify the specific fiber (wool, cotton, etc.) and maybe the category it belongs to (plant, animal, or synthetic).

computergeek3 wrote:

Audacious wrote:Does anyone have a chart for the burn test results of fibers?

Also, for burn tests, will regional level competitions ask to identify the specific type of fiber (cotton, nylon, polyester, silk, etc.), or just the category (vegetable, animal, synthetic)?

If it's at all possible, you and your partner should make your own chart for burn test results. This allows you to have your own observations about how the fibers burn so that you can quickly determine burn characteristics.

As for regional level competitions, the test should have you identify the specific fiber (wool, cotton, etc.) and maybe the category it belongs to (plant, animal, or synthetic).

The regional competition is this Saturday for me, and my coach did not provide any burn test results. We weren't allowed to do it in school anyways because the fire alarm would go off. Do you know which SPECIFIC fibers will be tested?

SO expects you to practice that, so maybe you could try it at home with your folks? Everyone has loose fabrics around. You just gotta know what they are before testing them. Otherwise, try Googling. I found these relatively easily.
http://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/Burn-Test-Chart.html
http://www.icsmag.com/ext/resources/Iss ... _Chart.jpg

I'd make your own chart, though, because that second one is needlessly huge. And they have TMI. You only need to know the category, remember, not specific fibers.

So are we tested by CATEGORY or SPECIFIC types of fibers?
Also, what do we need to know about soil composition?

Don't take my word for it. Grab page two of your rules and read section 3.b.ii. I think it's very clear on that.

As for soil, the idea is that your shoes pick up stuff. Beyond that, this is the topic I know the least about, so try this:
http://mypage.iu.edu/~lwoz/socrime/SoilAnalysis.htm

While studying these topics, I just wanted to remind you that the rules give specifics on what you need to know, but, also, basic questions are fair game, too.

I was looking through the rules today and I noticed that for Crime Busters, it says you may bring "one 8.5" x 11" two sided pages of notes per student", which is two two sided pages of notes. Yet, the wiki says that the team may only bring one two sided sheet of notes. Which one should I follow? Should I bring two cheatsheets just in case? Thanks!

The official rules should always take precedence... Note the word SHOULD... If you plan on taking 2 pages, both sides, you should probably plan on taking a copy of the rules as well... In previous years, you were only allowed one 2-sided page per team, not per student, so it's an easy thing to miss, and you may need to point it out to an E/C... politely, of course

To be honest, I wish they would do away completely with the note sheets... This event is just not so all-encompassing as to need resources, and to allow notes into the competitions really diminishes the efforts of some teams that have truly put in the effort practicing. Committing the anticipated reactions to memory will speed up your lab work substantially if you don't need to physically track a dichotomous key, but if you must have a safety net, I'd suggest you try to limit it to one page and just put on it what you continually have trouble with, and some of the really obtuse facts like (inventor of fingerprinting, types of fingerprinting, 30% of within the populations, name of DNA database, process name of DNA separation, and stuff like that