Fingerprint Memory & Association Activities
Challenge your short-term memory and attention to detail with variations of this fingerprint game. View the prints on the webpage or download the printable PDF versions with varying levels of difficulty. Anyone who is interested is welcome to participate in this activity and there are multiple ways to play to ensure the activity is accessible to students of all ages as well as forensic professionals and practitioners!
Fingerprint Memory Game (Beginner)
Instructions
- Print out two copies of the 20 Fingerprints below.
- Cut along the dotted lines to create a total of 40 fingerprint cards, or 20 pairs.
- Place the cards face down on a flat surface so that the fingerprints are not visible.
- Mix them up and then arrange in a grid. (Recommended: 10 cards across and 4 rows of cards down)
How To Play 1+ Players
- Players take turns revealing two fingerprint images by flipping the cards image side up. All players should pay attention to the fingerprints revealed with each turn and try to remember their locations to facilitate future matches.
- If the two fingerprints turned over are different, it is a miss, and the player must turn the two fingerprint cards image-side down again in the same spot; their turn is over and the game moves to the next player. If the two fingerprints turned over are identical, it is a match; the player who selected the matching pair claims the cards and continues with their turn until they miss or fail to select a matching pair.
- The game continues until all cards have been matched and removed from the playing area. All players must count the number of matching pairs they have collected and the player with the most pairs of matching cards is the winner!
Fingerprint Source Identification Activity (Advanced)
Instructions
- Print or view the Fingerprint Source Identification Guide below.
- Review the latent prints labeled A through T on the file provided or in the images provided below.
- In the blank column in the table, mark which known reference print, labeled 1 through 20, corresponds with each latent print, labeled A through T.
(Hint: Each latent will have only one mate from the known reference prints. Latent prints may be inverted or rotated.)
Larger images of the latent prints (A-T) and the known reference prints (1-20) are available below.
Fingerprint Source Identification Activity Answer Key
Thanks for playing! Ready to check your answers? View side-by-side comparisons and the answer key below!
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Funding for this Forensic Technology Center of Excellence event has been provided by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this event are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Contact us at ForensicCOE@rti.org with any questions and subscribe to our newsletter for notifications.
