2023 National Forensic Science Week Fingerprint Game & Activity – Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (2024)

← Back to Main Page

Instructions

• Print out two copies of the 20 Fingerprints below.
• Cut along the dotted lines to create a total of 40 fingerprint cards, or 20 pairs.
• Place the cards face down on a flat surface so that the fingerprints are not visible.
• Mix them up and then arrange in a grid. (Recommended: 10 cards across and 4 rows of cards down)

How To Play 1+ Players

• Players take turns revealing two fingerprint images by flipping the cards image side up. All players should pay attention to the fingerprints revealed with each turn and try to remember their locations to facilitate future matches.  
• If the two fingerprints turned over are different, it is a miss, and the player must turn the two fingerprint cards image-side down again in the same spot; their turn is over and the game moves to the next player. If the two fingerprints turned over are identical, it is a match; the player who selected the matching pair claims the cards and continues with their turn until they miss or fail to select a matching pair.   
• The game continues until all cards have been matched and removed from the playing area. All players must count the number of matching pairs they have collected and the player with the most pairs of matching cards is the winner! 

Click Here for the 20 Fingerprints

Instructions

• Print or view the Fingerprint Source Identification Guide below.
• Review the latent prints labeled A through T on the file provided or in the images provided below.
• In the blank column in the table, mark which known reference print, labeled 1 through 20, corresponds with each latent print, labeled A through T.

(Hint: Each latent will have only one mate from the known reference prints. Latent prints may be inverted or rotated.)

Click Here for Fingerprint Source Identification Guide

Click Here for Fingerprint Source Identification Answer Key

Check out last year's events!

• 2022 National Forensic Science Week
• 2022 NIJ Forensic Science Graduate Research Symposium
• 2022 National Forensic Science Week FTCOE Student Research Poster Session
• 2022 National Forensic Science Week Murder Mystery Event
• 2022 National Forensic Science Week Ask an Expert

Funding for this Forensic Technology Center of Excellence event has been provided by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

The opinions, findings, and conclusions orrecommendations expressed in this event are those ofthe author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Contact us atForensicCOE@rti.orgwith any questions and subscribe to ournewsletterfor notifications.