List of MicroSims for Forensic Science

Interactive Micro Simulations to help students explore forensic science concepts hands-on. Each MicroSim focuses on a single idea — drag, click, calculate, and observe to build understanding.

• ABO Blood Typing Interactive Simulator

  

  Interpret agglutination results to determine ABO/Rh blood type (Bloom L2 — Understand).

• ADH minimum-PMI Calculator

  

  Calculate a minimum post-mortem interval from accumulated degree-hours and a temperature record (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• ADME Pathway Interactive Flow Diagram

  

  Explain the ADME pharmacokinetic pathway and describe what happens to a drug at each stage (Bloom L2 — Understand).

• AFIS Search Workflow

  

  Explain how AFIS encodes minutiae and generates a candidate list for human examiner review (Bloom L2 — Understand).

• Angle-of-Impact Calculator

  

  Calculate the angle of impact of a bloodstain from its width-to-length ratio (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Area-of-Origin Stringing

  

  Determine the 3D area of origin of a blood source using stain direction and angle-of-impact data (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• BAC Retro-Extrapolation

  

  Calculate BAC with the Widmark formula and retro-extrapolate it back to an earlier event time (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Becke Line Test Simulator

  

  Interpret which way the bright Becke line moves to decide whether glass or oil has the higher refractive index (Bloom L2 — Understand).

• CDR & Tower Triangulation Timeline

  

  Use Call Detail Records and cell-tower data to reconstruct a device's movement and trilaterate its location (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Chain of Custody Flow

  

  Step through each evidence transfer from crime scene to courtroom and explain the documentation required at every handoff (Bloom L2 — Understand).

• Criminal Justice Process — From Crime Scene to Verdict

  

  Step through the criminal justice process from crime scene to verdict, seeing where forensic evidence and constitutional protections apply at each stage.

• Daubert vs. Frye Admissibility Decision Workflow

  

  Compare how the Frye and Daubert standards evaluate the same scientific evidence and see which evidence is allowed in court (Bloom L4 — Analyze).

• Debris Field Pattern Explorer

  

  Read an aircraft debris field to distinguish an intact ground impact from an in-flight breakup by adjusting breakup altitude, wind, and aircraft speed (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Evidence Packaging Guide

  

  Select the correct packaging material for a given evidence item and see the forensic reason and courtroom risk of a wrong choice (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Evidence Search Pattern Selector

  

  Select a search pattern for a given scene, run an animated overhead sweep, and judge coverage, time, and personnel trade-offs against a live fit rating (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Facial Recognition Pipeline

  

  Identify the five stages of an automated facial-recognition pipeline and the source of error at each (Bloom L1 — Remember).

• Fiber Identification Decision Tree

  

  Apply a multi-step protocol (burn test, microscopy, solubility) to classify an unknown textile fiber (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Fingerprint Pattern Classification Explorer

  

  Identify the three fingerprint pattern families and their eight subtypes by their defining structural features (Bloom L1 — Remember).

• Firearms Ballistic Pathway

  

  Identify the three ballistic phases and the evidence each produces by clicking an annotated trigger-to-wound diagram (Bloom L1 — Remember).

• Forensic Imaging & Hash Verification Workflow

  

  Explain the forensic imaging procedure and verify image integrity with hash comparison (Bloom L2 — Understand).

• Glass Fracture Sequence Analyzer

  

  Apply the fracture-sequencing rule to determine which of two impacts on a glass pane happened first (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Handwriting Characteristics Comparison

  

  Identify the key characteristics used to compare a questioned handwriting sample with a known exemplar (Bloom L1 — Remember).

• Headspace SPME → GC-MS Workflow

  

  Explain how headspace SPME recovers volatile accelerant residues from arson debris and connects to GC-MS identification (Bloom L2 — Understand).

• Interactive Timeline of Forensic Science History

  

  Explore an interactive timeline of key milestones in forensic science history, from early fingerprinting to modern DNA analysis (Bloom L1 — Remember).

• Landmark Crash Investigations Timeline

  

  Explore landmark aircraft accident investigations and the forensic advance each produced, on an interactive, filterable timeline (Bloom L1 — Remember).

• Latent Print Development Technique Selector

  

  Apply substrate-porosity logic to select the correct latent fingerprint development technique (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Locard Exchange Principle Visualizer

  

  Apply the Locard Exchange Principle to predict and verify what trace evidence is produced and transferred when two objects make physical contact (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Medullary Index Calculator

  

  Calculate the medullary index (MI = medulla ÷ shaft) of a hair cross-section and classify it as human, ambiguous, or non-human (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Metadata Recovery and Timeline Builder

  

  Recover EXIF metadata from simulated evidence photos, build a chronological timeline, and detect time-zone anomalies (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• NTSB Investigation Workflow

  

  Step through the sequence of an aircraft accident investigation from notification to probable-cause determination on an interactive flowchart (Bloom L2 — Understand).

• PCR Amplification Step-Through Simulator

  

  Step through the three stages of one PCR cycle — denaturation, annealing, extension — and trace what happens to the DNA at each (Bloom L2 — Understand).

• Random Match Probability Product Rule Calculator

  

  Apply the product rule across STR loci to calculate a DNA profile's random match probability and compare it to population sizes (Bloom L3 — Apply).

• Skeletal Sex Indicators Interactive Diagram

  

  Compare male and female pelvis and skull features side by side and identify the traits used to estimate biological sex from skeletal remains (Bloom L1 — Remember).

• Social Network Analysis Graph Explorer

  

  Analyze a simulated communication network to identify hub accounts, broker accounts, and clusters using centrality, filtering, community detection, and shortest-path tracing (Bloom L4 — Analyze).

• Soil Analysis Comparison Dashboard

  

  Compare a questioned soil sample to three references across Munsell color, particle size, pH, and density-gradient banding at once, then score the match (Bloom L4 — Analyze).

• TLC Ink Separation Interactive Diagram

  

  Run a thin-layer chromatography separation, calculate Rf values, switch to UV light, and compare a questioned ink to reference lanes (Bloom L2 — Understand).

• Triangulation Measurement Technique

  

  Drag an evidence item around a scaled room floor plan and read live triangulation distances from two reference corners, then record them to a sketch log (Bloom L3 — Apply).