It could be the scene for the latest spy movie, or maybe an episode of CSI, but for students in medical terminology, the second quarter grading period began a new chapter on the human body and the integumentary system by checking out their fingerprints.

Using just their pencils and some tape, students learned to identify their finger type.

“In this lab, we found our own fingerprint patterns by rubbing graphite on our fingers, lifting the imprint with tape, and putting it down on paper,” Heritage High School sophomore, Allison Chau said. “Then we had to identify the types of fingerprints we had and research just how common that type was. It was easy and fun to find out what percent my fingers fit in.”

Hoping to give students a little break and stress-free day, Heritage HS teacher, Kari Lark gave students this lab and three others to accomplish just that.

“For this lab, I had students basically figure out their fingerprint type, and how rare or common it is,” Lark said through Zoom. “It was just a fun little lab we did, one out of four labs, and I thought it would be an easy-ish lab and give students a small break from worrying about studying for a little bit.”

Knowing that everyone’s fingerprints are unique in their own way, freshman Meghana Dasari learned that she has the most common type through the lab.

“I thought the project was very interesting to complete because it implements information about the integumentary system in real life, in the case of fingerprints,” Dasari said. “I always knew that each person’s fingerprint was unique, but I didn’t know what type I had. Because of this, observing my fingerprint on the paper was really cool to see. I also learned about different types of fingerprints on humans, and I discovered I have the most common one.”