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SEEKONK -- Watch out "CSI"! There's a new generation of crime solvers in the wings.

A group of youngsters at Seekonk Public Library recently got some lessons in becoming forensic scientists from Nicole Wenger of Attleboro-based Science Quest, a non-profit science education company that offers hands-on programs for schools, teachers, homeschool groups and libraries to promote science literacy.

The program was sponsored by the library as one in a series of Family Nights, this particular presentation funded by the Seekonk Cultural Council.

About 20 children, parents and grandparents became sleuths, learning ways to solve "Crime Scene Mysteries" through fingerprint dusting, comparing lipstick prints, matching neo blood types, conducting chromatology (analyzing mixtures, such as ink), identifying animal skulls, paw and footprints, and pelts, employing a microscope, magnifying glasses and other tools of the trade.

Wenger told the gathering at the start of the 45-minute session that a crime isn't always a bad thing and it doesn't have to be bloody, gory or gruesome. That elicited a disappointed "ahh" from from one youngster obviously on the trail of something more devious.

"Haven't you ever lost something?" she queried the audience. Many of the children admitted to that crime, or at least to being blamed for it.

Wenger offered a theoretical case: Something stolen from the library.

She quizzed her audience on what clues they might look for to solve the mystery.

Footprints, was one possibility. How can footprints be made?, Wenger asked. "Muck" shouted one child. Snow, which was falling as the session was taking place, would be another way, as would scat, ("Poop!' shouted a child), had the perpetrator stepped in it, Wenger added.

She peppered the kids with questions about what footprints and tracks could tell them and how they could lead to tracking down suspects based on the size of the footprint and the tread of the shoe.

Wenger also told them about the three patterns of fingerprints - arch, loop and whirl - and how no two fingerprints are the same, with the exception of identical twins. One young girl commented that twins can have the same hairdos as well.

Hair, along with bones, teeth, fibers can also narrow down the suspects through matching the evidence left at the scene of the crime with DNA samples, she said. In the case of animal capers, fur could also be used to link evidence, Wenger noted.

Saliva or lip prints could have been left on a glass if the perpetrator took a drink, she added. And the type of pen or marker used to write the ransom note could be analyzed through chromatology.

The children and the adults went from table to table. At one, they had to match two lipstick prints from an evidence card to a suspect card containing 24 prints. Zachary Figueira, 6, of Rehoboth, was there with his grandparents Joan and Harold Figueira and eyeing the prints through a large magnifying glass. He fingered one of the suspects with a lip print match, then moved along to fingerprints, where his grandmother helped him to make copies of his own using pencil smudges, tape and paper. "I used to do these," mused his grandfather, a former police officer for the town.

Zachary said he preferred the animal tracks where the sleuths took casts and used stamp pads to re-create them on paper to take home and match to prints in their yards. There were no bear tracks, to one youth's dismay.

William Barresi, 10, of Rehoboth, hit the table for analysis of the marker used in the theoretical ransom note. "I like matching stuff up," he said, taking one of the six markers, drawing a line on a coffee filter and putting drops of water on it. The idea was to see which colors bled and match one with the color used for the note, a sample of which was on an evidence card.

Others tried dusting for fingerprints, brushing hot cocoa on glass containers and lifting the prints with tape.

Matthew Filippini, 10, of Seekonk, there with his father Tony, was amassing evidence through clues in pelts and skulls. He deduced one of the skulls with long front teeth was that of a beaver, which was confirmed by Wenger.

Rebecca Santos, 3, of Seekonk, had difficulty identifying a blood type match through the microscope, but had little problem fingering the skunk suspect. "It's smelly," she said. Wenger replied that the scent glands had been removed, but Rebecca remained skeptical.

Wenger should know. Her background includes work as a ranger for the National Park Service and as a community outreach coordinator for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. The goal of Science Quest is to excite audiences and promote community-wide literacy about science through these type of programs.

Emilie Lake, 10, of Seekonk, acknowledged that she had not done much investigating to date. "But it's kind of cool though," she said, stroking the pelt of a fox and noting the black fur below the rust-colored top layer.