What are three experiments and/or techniques that would distinguish between the beta A and beta S ...

I don't think you're dumb!

RFLP or restriction fragment length polymorphism, can detect variations in genes sequences between βA and βS genes in Sickle Cell Disease (SCD).

RNA sequence analysis can be done by computational methods to find the differences in mRNA sequences and this can be achieved by:

Mapping to the genome (total genetic material of an organism) or

Mapping to the transcriptome (expression of the total genes of an organism in terms of the total RNA)

Western blotting: can be used to find out the differences in the amino acid sequences in of the two variants of β-globin protein.