So who had abducted Detective Anna?  The Acton campus was in an uproar, as Detectives-in-Training fanned out to collect evidence and interview suspects, using all of the tools and skills they had earned during the Detective Quest:

• Documenting the crime scene;
• Fingerprint analysis
• Footprint analysis
• Handwriting analysis
• Deductive ability
• Decomposition
• Life cycle of flies
• Microbes
• Tooth impressions
• DNA and genetics; and
• Facial reconstruction.

Detective Anna’s first cousin “Dora” appeared to help as a lab assistant.

Evidence was carefully analyzed and weighed.

The prime suspect was relentlessly questioned until she finally broke down and confessed.

A grateful Detective Anna was rescued, and the Eagles shared their top “lessons learned” about the scientific method and forensic analysis:

• You have to get it exactly right, because an innocent person might go to jail if you make a mistake;
• This means that details matter; and
• What you do impacts others; so
• You most go slow, and work hard to uncover evidence and clues far beyond what’s given; and
• Be careful to cross check your team’s work for accuracy.

A pretty good checklist for any scientific project that’s going to change to world.