Skilled professionals have brought their years of experience in detective work at the ongoing Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF 2019), to present an authentic, challenging and enjoyable crime scene investigation-themed workshop.

The detective project offered forensic science-based events that explored the way in which crime is investigated in the 21st century. Employing real forensic investigation techniques, the workshop seemed great fun for children who were riveted by the investigation.

Instructors were ex-police detectives and frontline forensic science experts with several years of experience. Cathy, one of the workshop instructors, said: “This workshop gets children really interested in science and its different aspects, encompassing not only what they learn in school, but also forensic science. It also captures their imagination and wracks their brains.

“It is a fun and engaging activity that enhances team spirit, which is an important quality to have to tackle real-life situations.”

Participants divided in two groups were seen analysing evidence and competing with the other team to solve the crime.

One team dedicatedly matched the shoeprint overlays with the shoeprint on casts, which were made of mud or plaster. The children urged to identify as to who was at the crime scene.

The other team was dedicated to finding evidence by matching fingerprints.They pressed their fingers on an ink pad and studied certain friction ridge patterns, that were grouped into three distinct types—loops, whorls and arches.

Thus, honing the next generation of detectives, some of whom would actually be solving hands-on crime scenes later on in life, this workshop was a perfect project to bring out the inner detectives in them, to create the future Hercule Poirot.

SCRF, that’s running from April 17-27 at the Sharjah Expo Centre, is one of the most important cultural events dedicated to children in the UAE and greater region. It has gone beyond being a book exhibition and developed into an integrated event that contributes to enriching the knowledge of visitors with different science and literature workshops and garners the participation of organisations and centres dedicated to children.