Mystery Box

Good observation skills involve all the scenes (the ability of the brain and nerves to react the world around us through sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste). Sight is just one of the senses. What a forensic scientists, detective, or witness hears, smells, feels, or tastes may also be important clues. Try the following investigation to sharpen your nonvisual observationn skills.

Materials

- empty shoe box or similar box with lid
- various objects made from different materials-such as a rubber ball, a roll of toilet paper, a metal jar lid, a bar of soap, a plastic toy, a piece of fruit such as an apple, banana, or orange, etc—gathered by your helper with out your knowledge
- helper

Procedure

1. Leave the room.
2. Have your helper put several of objects in the shoe box and put the lid in place.
3. Return to the room and, without opening the box, try to guess how many objects are in the box and what the objects are made of. If possible, guess what the objects are. You can tilt, gently shake, and smell the box to help you.
4. After you have made your predictions, open the box and see how well you did. What objects were the easiest to determine? What objects were the hardest to determine?
5. Repeat the activity with other objects. Give your helper a turn at guessing.

More Fun Stuff to Do

To develop your sense of touch, have a helper first blind fold you and then put several objects in front of you. Touch the objects, but do not pick them up. Can you identify them? Without removing the blindfold, pick upthose that you could not identify. Can you tell what they are now? Remove the blindfold and see how well you did. Repeat the activity with other materials, but this time have your helper wear the blindfold.

Explanation

Forensic scientists and detective must use all five of their sense when investigating a crime. They often use the sense of sight to observe the scene of the crime and record what they see. But often the other four senses--hearing, smell, touch, and taste--will give a forensic scisntist information that may or may not be important evidence or clues. For example, that faint smell or bitter almond in a dringking glass might mean cyanide poisoning. Three loud bangs heard by witnesses could be gunfire or just a car misfiring.

Here is an exercisethat you can use to improve your other senses. Sit on a park bench on a warm spring day. Close your eyes and observe what is happening around you. Can you identify five sounds that you hear? Can you identify three smells?