John Adams New Scotland Yard Forensics Refreshed 2014 Kit

this forensics kit was a present for my grandson and he absolutely loves it, great gift at a very reasonable price

A great game for little detectives! My son, aged 9, spent over an hour together with me solving all the cases. We set up a scene with the crime scene tape and did some role playing. We worked through the 4 cases together and enjoyed using various forensic techniques to solve the crimes. The cases are all linked and it was fun putting it all together. I was annoyed that the database was online and ended up printing about 30 pages (in grayscale) to make it easier for us to go through the information needed. They should have provided this info in the box as it's necessary for the game. I think my son would have found it slightly confusing if I didn't work through it with him. I helped by looking at it in advance and sorting out what order we needed to do things so we didn't have to keep stopping to see what we need to do next. There was plenty of information about forensics in the booklets provided and extras to do some more dectective work like fingerprint lifting. My son did really enjoy this kit and I plan on repeating the cases with my 7 year old as well and hopefully he enjoys it as well. A good kit, but let down due to essential info that's not included.

i bought this to help with my BTEC Forensic Science Course and some of it was OK but it was fairly disapointing really

Finger print black powder was very messy and was found everywhere ( on white walls, on laminate flooring..). Too much of a stain hazard, as it s very hard to clean.

My 9 year old daughter LOVED this and I really enjoyed doing it with her. The time it takes to fully complete all the separate investigations is just about right; it wasn’t so long that she got bored and it was long enough that she was entertained. The evidence you can find in each case is just about the right level so that she had to think about what it meant. There is loads of information in the accompanying handbook and the information booklet. You need to wet the fingerprint ink a little to get a good print for the first case. I have also scanned in the little evidence cards so that I can print out more of them for doing our own investigations. There are LOADS of things we are planning to do with the rest of the stuff leftover in the kit. The first thing will be trying to lift prints from food wrappers that her teenage brother denies having stolen...

The booklet mentioned using s CD to access the online database. As a primary school teacher, I purchased this item to inspire my Y5 Crime and Punishment planning. How will the children be able to discover who the suspects are for each case if I do not have access to the database?!? Is it possible to be sent the CD? Or buy it separately elsewhere? This is not good enough.

Reviewed all the material prior to using it on a weeks family holiday. Four case files in which different forensic type tests can be used to determine guilty parties. Each case is part of an overall scenario which can be pieced together from the case files and suspect statements etc . Forensic tests include finger prints, substance testing, imprints, handwriting and notebook comparisons, ink assessment, revealing by uv light, and clothes fibre identification. Single page case files, suspect statements, including fingerprints, telephone conversations etc, info for use with the forensic tests and Scenarios for each case file are all required to be downloaded from thecwebsite (no cd) . This was straightforward with the bulk of the info in a single pdf file. Reference to supporting material (eg copies of material supplied in hard copy in the pack, options for the forensic tests)) in this file can be downloaded in separate files. These can be printed out if you don't want to rely on a computer. Note you might not want the investigators to have the scenarios in the pdf file which they are trying to work out. This is another reason to print out the pages of the pdf file. Age 10+ is about right but it can be expanded with one's material to accomodate younger child. Eg I have ordered a simple voice recorder for a 6 year old to 'interrogate' suspects! There are two mini books in the pack, one describing the tests and a more general one about forensic analysis which I guess is aimed at the teenager or adult who is motivated to learn more.

8 year old daughter loved it. Needs adult supervision and a bit of patience to run through the clues but the kids can definitely do the testing themselves. Fingerprint powder will get everywhere! The 4 cases didn't take too long to solve but we stretched them out into a few days just to keep it going. Great purchase, and will last as there are enough samples to make up your own mysteries.