EAST KY BIOTECHNOLOGY CAMP

 

August 4-5, 2005

 

AGENDA

 

Thursday, Aug. 4

 

9:00     Orientation, receive t-shirts

9:15- 10:15 Mock trial

10:15   Break

10:30-12:00     Visit crime scene

12:00   Lunch

12:45   Begin processing samples in small groups. (UK) Analyze crime scene evidence, practice procedure with fruit DNA extraction)

3:00-3:15 Break

3:15 – 5:00 Continue lab work. Revisit scene if necessary.

5:00 - 6:00  Free time

6:00     Dinner

7:00- 9:00 Meet with Lawyers, begin planning strategy

9:00- 11:00 Evening Activities

11:30   Lights out

 

 

Friday, Aug. 5

 

7:00     Rise & Shine

8:00     Breakfast

9:00     Set up to analyze real DNA

10:15   Break

10:30   Headliners and Career – Explore careers available in biotechnology, sciences, ag science, forensic science, etc.  Anyone there from UK could input here

Finish DNA banding.

12:00   Lunch  (Cabins need to be empty for inspection)

12:45   Review data

1:15     Ethics panel

2:00-3:15 Prepare for murder trial

3:15     Conduct trial                

4:30     Trial concludes, adults process experience with kids

4:45-5:00 Evaluation, questions, other wrap-up info as needed.

5:00     Leave camp

 

 

 

 

 

RESOURCES

 

GREENUP COUNTY:
Kathy Junker, Cooperative Extension agent – 4-H Youth Development

Responsibilities:

Overall coordinator and manager

            Introduce team on day one

            Responsible for room set up

            Manage agenda for easy flow

            Coordinate meals

            Liaison with camp staff for meeting rooms        

Solicit student participants, high school and adult volunteers, community       professionals, UK specialists and staff

Arrange media coverage

Check with court system for real judge, prosecutor, defense atty. for trial

Roy Gaunce - Nicholas Coroner

Responsibilities:

            Create crime scene with State Police

            Testify at mock trial if appropriate to scenario

            Work crime scene with State Police gathering crime scene evidence

Provide an autopsy report of findings and determine cause of death (to be used in    student trial)

__(Shain Stevens - still not confirmed)__– Kentucky State Trooper, Dry Ridge Post

Responsibilities:

            Create crime scene with Deputy Coroner

            Testify at mock trial if appropriate to scenario

            Work crime scene with Deputy Coroner gathering crime scene evidence

            Testify at trial reporting appropriate results of physical evidence

Ethics panelists:

Ernie Carmichael - Methodist minister  

Mike Phillips   Extension Agriculture Agent

Shelley Gabriel - Physicians Assistant

Keiko Tanaka - UK Social scientist

Headliners & Careers - David Hidebrand, UK Plant Science

Additional Volunteers:

Teens:        Paul Adkins, Samantha Justice, Chelsea Bentley

Adults:       Novella Froman, Sherrill Bentley and Kathy Junker (Agents), Jennifer Lynn (Environmental Camp Coordinator), Bill Billman, Diana Wilson (Lewis Co. adult volunteers)

                 

                 

 

 

 

 

 

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

 

David Hidebrand -

Responsibilities:

      Coordinate with appropriate staff all lab activity and supplies

      Play a part in mock trial in whatever role required

      Presnet Headliners & Careers (provide up to date info on what is happening in the news and careers available across program areas in biotechnology)

      Provide Clay & Scott with learning outcomes for experiments that would be appropriate for assessment tool

     Coordinate with Kathy UK personnel to help with the biotech camp

     Critique camp to make sure we are in compliance with Venture grant guidelines.

 

Scott  & Clay

Responsibilities:

            Play a role on the mock trial as needed

            Set up lab experiments and provide educational activities

            Provide assessment outcomes

            Serve as expert witness in trial if necessary

 

Keiko Tanaka, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Community & Leadership Development

Responsibilities:

            Serve on ethics panel

            Help with Headliners (careers) if needed

 

 

Additional Notes:

Laurie will take care of supplying snacks, beverages, etc.

No swimming will be permitted

The Mock trial and Friday trial have only been changed to reflect new names or             locations.  Any changes that have been made to the general scenarios are not        known to Kathy.  People have been assigned a spot on the mock trial but not the real trial.

We will make s’mores Thursday evening.  Need someone who knows how to build a    camp fire.  Same person needs to be SURE fire is out at end of evening as the area           is very DRY.  Camp has sticks we can use for roasting.  Camp wood should be            there.

KJ has ordered t-shirts.

UK will provide all equipment and ingredients for experiments.  Are you going to extract            DNA from fruit?

KJ will provide craft supplies to make DNA strand if we need that activity.

Assessment tool being written by Clay and Scott should be given at both beginning and end of camp.  KJ will provide pencils.

 

MOCK TRIAL

 

Citizen George Brown vs. Farmer Roy Wood,

North Central 4-H Camp, Commonwealth of Kentucky

August 4, 2005

 

PARTICIPANTS:

            George Brown (rose expert): Clay

            Farmer Wood (cattle farmer): Scott

            Farmer Johnson’s wife (chicken & hog farmer): Novella

            Widow Nelson (dairy farmer):  Sherrill

 

SITUATION:

 

            Mr. George Brown and Farmer Wood are neighbors, sharing a 500 foot property line in rural Nicholas County.  They have had a long standing feud.  Farmer Wood has 25 head of cattle and is somewhat lazy in maintaining his fence row separating the two properties.  Farmer Brown works another job and only really has time to work the farm seriously on the weekends. 

 

            Mr. Brown is always upset with Farmer Wood because the cattle have been out a couple of times, roaming through his yard, damaging his flower gardens and leaving piles of manure on his manicured lawn.  His hobby is growing and propagating show roses.  He has patented two new varieties and, after 5 years of research, is close to perfecting a new “blue rose” variety.

           

Mr. Brown is not well liked by any of his neighbors.  On the other side of Brown’s property lives Farmer Johnson, who has 20 head of cattle, 5 fertile sows, one boar, and about 27 baby pigs. His biggest economic venture, however, is his barn of about 120 laying hens.  Mr. Brown constantly complains about the smell.

 

            The land behind the Brown home is a vacant field and often attracts kids on four wheelers.  The noise is particularly offensive to Mr. Brown and he has called the local police numerous times to report them.

 

            Across from Mr. Brown lives Widow Nelson, who still has the family Holstein dairy cow she milks twice a day for milk, cream and butter.  She sells the cream and butter to some of her close friends, which keeps her in spending money.  She keeps the cow in the barn during the heat of the day and in the pasture in the cool of the evening.

 

            When Mr. Brown returned from a two week vacation, he found his rose gardens trampled and his “blue rose” experimental bush crushed to the ground, dying and turning brown.   Five black and white cows were in the yard.  Several cow paddies covered with flies, spotted his yard.  A hole was in Farmer Wood’s fence. Mr. Brown blamed Farmer Wood for the loss and is suing him for a million dollars in damages and potential loss of income.

 

            Farmer Wood contends his cattle have not been out.  He explained the broken fence was caused by a tree blowing down on it in a recent storm.  Just that morning the tree was removed from the fence so he could repair it.

            When Mr. Brown discovered the dying rose bush, he immediately called the police.  Police Detective Short arrived on the scene and gathered the evidence.  It included:

·        the dying rose bush

·        samples from three different cow paddies

·        some hoof prints and a size 13 right boot print and a partial print, possibly a size 10 heel print.  There were other prints but none clear enough to positively ID.

·        a sample of blood and hair on a partially destroyed Pink Lady rose bush

·        a chicken feather

            Based on the evidence retrieved and the lab results, the case went to trial. 

 

(According to the State Police, a cow getting out and damaging property does not constitute a crime unless we can show malicious intent on the part of Farmer Wood, Johnson or Widow Nelson to destroy the “blue rose” bush.  This would be tried as a civil case).

 

Evidence:

 

Farmer Wood’s cow could not have destroyed the bush because the hole in the fence from the downed tree was not exposed until just a few hours before Mr. Brown returned from vacation.  The rose bush was already dying.  However, Farmer Wood does wear a size 13 boot.

 

There is no history of having problems with Farmer Johnson’s cows.  However, both Johnson and Wood have black and white cows. The problem with this neighbor was the smell of the pigs and chickens.  A close look at the cattle herd revealed one of the cows had a flesh wound that was beginning to heal.

 

We can prove the cow which was in the garden had a small hoof, similar to the size of a dairy cow.  However, both Farmer s Wood and Johnson have some young heifers in their herds.

 

Three weeks ago Widow Nelson heard Farmer Johnson and Mr. Brown having heated words about the smell of the pigs and chickens.  Mr. Brown threatened Johnson to do something about the smell or he would put him out of business.

 

Final analysis:

 

Widow Nelson’s dairy cow got out of the barn stall when she left it unlocked after the evening milking.  She was grazing in Mr. Brown’s yard and garden when she was spooked by one of Farmer Johnson’s chickens and took off through the rose garden.  When Widow Nelson discovered what was going on, she called Farmers Wood and Johnson to come help her catch Betsy and return her to the stall in the barn.  In the dark, no one noticed the destroyed rose bush.

 

 

 

 


CSI MURDER MYSTERY:

 

The Case of the Missing Formula

& the Murder of Professor Karen Phillips

 

SITUATION:

            At 10:15 a.m. students attending a 4-H biotechnology camp discovered a dead body as they took a morning walk.  As they arrive on the scene, the Kentucky State Highway Patrolman is putting up a yellow crime scene tape to preserve the scene.  The female body was discovered lying near one of the cabins by Camp employee Jennifer Lynn at 8:30.  The employee called the state police around 9:30. The coroner had already arrived and watched as the State Trooper began gathering evidence that will help determine what happened at the scene.  He sees several stab wounds in the chest, defensive wounds on the wrists and hands.  He gathers samples under her nails, blood samples, takes photos of body and a nearby footprint.  There is also a scrap of fabric with some blood on it caught on some nearby twigs. He bags all the evidence and the coroner places the body in a body bag to be taken to the morgue for autopsy.

 

VICTIM:

            Students learn the victim is a visitor to the Camp. She was to speak to the biotechnology camp that afternoon.   Professor Karen Phillips is an assistant professor and researcher at the University of Kentucky who has been doing some research on genetics with the help of Professor Joe Chapell.  They have recently discovered a secret genetic coding sequence for livestock (pig, sheep and cattle) cloning.  The formula would not only create a faster gestation period, but also reduce the fat in the meat.  More high quality meat would be available on the market and could result in the reduction or elimination of world hunger.  The addition supply of hides would also add to the commercial properties offered by these cloned animals.  Professor Phillips was asked to come to the North Central 4-H Camp to share the findings with the biotech campers since Professor Joe Chappell could not attend.  It is believed she had the cloning formula with her, but it could not be found on her person or in her cabin.  Later during the week she was to fly to Washington D.C.  to share her findings with the Secretarys of Agriculture, Commerce, and Homeland Security and an ethics committee from the Department of Agriculture.

 

            Professor Phillips was 26 years old, married and had a medium size frame.  She was a workaholic, often putting in 70 hour weeks for the last 12 years, trying to perfect the cloning formula.  She was a chain smoker but had recently quit.  Though very feminine in all outwards appearances, her favorite past time was gambling on professional sports games and she was heavily indebted to the Mafia .

 

SUSPECTS:

            Four suspects quickly surfaced as the detective began his investigation:

 

Professor Chappell:  The Professor had spent many long hours working on the cloning formula and felt he had more ownership to the formula than Phillips did.  MOTIVE: He was jealous that at her young age, SHE was the one who made the critical DNA sequencing connection.  He thought he deserved the recognition alone.

 

Jennifer Lynn:  Jennifer worked hard as a Environmental Camp Coordinator.  While having dinner with Phillips and several other Camp Staff the night before, she learned about Professor Phillips’ discovery and its economic implications.  MOTIVE: If she could get the formula and sell it, she could leave the camp position and lead a more interesting life.

 

Bob Cannolli:  Bob is the bookie Phillips uses to place her bets on the sports games.  He has been tracking Phillips to collect his overdue fee.  She never returns his calls. MOTIVE: Bob figures if he could get hold of the formula, he could sell it to counter Phillips’ debt and use the rest of the money for some serious betting on his own.  He might even put his arch rival Ted Buschetti out of business.

 

Paul Smith:  Mr. Smith overheard the dinner conversation the night before while he and his family were eating in the Camp dining room.  He had always dreamed of his daughter having the Grand Champion 4-H steer at the county fair and maybe even the Kentucky State Fair. MOTIVE:  If he could get hold of the formula, he could have the County Ag Agent help him improve his herd and insure he would have the prize winning animal the next year.

 

Ken Phillips, the husband:  Though the couple has been married for only two years, the fight a lot about Karen’s gambling debt.  Currently, Mr. Phillips is in the Middle East serving in the 21st Air Wing Division of the US Air Force.

 

EVIDENCE:

 

Shoe print: Shoe size and tread fit Jennifer Lynn’s shoe.  She admits to finding the body and moving it into the shade.

Chest wounds: T-shirt is covered with blood and shows several slash marks, presumably from a knife.  The Autopsy report shows a knife-like instrument entered the body at a right-to-left angle with the victim’s body.

Wounds on wrists and hands: The wounds on her hands and wrists indicate she may have tried to fight off her attacker.  That suggests she was on the shore while being attacked.  She either then fell in the water or was pushed in.

Fingernail scrapings: Forensic lab is processing for fiber and possible DNA sample.  No report yet.

Fabric with blood stain:  Fabric is being analyzed to match clothing worn by suspects and the blood sample for DNA evidence.  No report yet.

Empty soda pop can: A can has been discarded near the scene.  There is some blood and a partial fingerprint.

Trail of blood: In addition to a pool of blood on the right side of the body, there is a trail of blood leading to, or from, the body.

A driver’s license:  The license is found in the right shorts pocket of the victim.  It contains name. Address, social security number and the information that she is married.