Jon Gray
Waldon Middle School, Lake Orion

Forensic Science—Crime Scene Investigation

Objectives
In the eighth grade, students are teetering on the brink of losing their interest in science forever, or getting the spark that will carry them through high school and beyond. The forensic science unit is an attempt to show students that science can be interesting, and could result in a career choice. The added benefit of this unit is getting students to use sound scientific principles to solve a “mystery.”

Students use the metric system to measure a “crime scene” and microscopes to examine “evidence.” They may use their knowledge of pH to determine if someone has been “poisoned” or their knowledge of blood spatter patterns to determine how someone “died.”

Judging from the reflections students have written, I would definitely say the unit has sparked an interest in science and possibly directed some to lifelong careers. From the first day of class, students are asking about the “crime scene” and when they will be able to do it. It is definitely a highlight of their entire 8th grade year, not just their science class.

Approach
For this unit, I set up a mock crime scene in an unused school room. The crime scene is tailored to give students a chance to use principles of science that they have learned in class. I use my experience of 20 years as a former police officer to make the scenes as realistic as possible while still having educational value.

Students start by making measurements using the principles of triangulation to locate evidence, and scale to make the drawing accurate. All work is done in the metric system of measurement. Trace evidence is collected and taken to the classroom for examination using microscopes, electronic scales and other laboratory equipment.

They use computer software to generate a composite drawing of witnesses or suspects. They use their knowledge of genetics to examine fingerprint patterns and eliminate possible suspects. The competition to be the group with the best solution to the crime sometimes drives students to seek out more information and to go above and beyond the minimum requirements to solve the crime.

Relevance
Today’s student needs to see the relevance of classroom work in order to learn and retain the information. Being able to apply knowledge to a real-life situation makes it more meaningful.

This unit cashes in on the popularity of television shows such as CSI to get the students hooked, taking traditional areas of math and science such as metric measurement, microscope use, technical writing, and simple trigonometry and applying them to the investigation of the mock crime scene. The unit takes science out of the classroom and textbook and applies it to a real-life problem solving activity, in this case, a crime scene mystery. I show students an episode of CSI, and also snippets of a Discovery Channel show on real crime scene investigators. I explain the difference between Hollywood and real life and they get a chance to see how it is really done, and that sometimes

Measurement
For the crime scene unit, I take lessons that have been learned in class and require their understanding in order to solve the crime. If students didn’t learn the difference between an animal hair and a human hair in class, they wouldn’t be able to determine the significance of a hair sample found at the scene. If they weren’t paying attention when we learned about applying the principles of trigonometry to determine the height and location of a wound based on blood spatter patterns, they wouldn’t be able to figure out how the victim “died.” If they didn’t listen the day we learned about fingerprint patterns and their uniqueness, they wouldn’t be able to focus on the proper suspect.

They were interested in the science because they knew it would be relevant later on when it came time to apply it to the investigation. The change I see in my students is an increased enthusiasm toward science in general because they can see the relevance in real-life situations. Students that have little or no interest in science suddenly emerge as leaders in the teams of investigators. Many times they are learning without even realizing it.

Unfortunately, this enthusiasm is very difficult to measure in terms of standardized tests. I measure the outcome and success of the unit in the attitudes of my students toward their science studies and I always see improvement. If I didn’t realize results, I wouldn’t spend as much of my valuable time and energy teaching it every year.

Challenges
The first challenge I encountered was the perception of the parents, staff and administration. The first year I did the project, I used a simple burglary as the crime. It was interesting but didn’t really grab the kids. The second year I had a “victim” but the solution involved an accident versus an actual crime.

Every year since, there has been a deliberate crime and a victim. In this day of being politically correct and avoiding all reference to school violence, this has been a challenge. The fact that I have been doing it for so long now and everyone knows that it is just a simulation has quelled these fears.

The second challenge was getting a room in the building and the cooperation of staff and administration. Since staff members, including the principal, are the suspects, they have to be willing to subject themselves to fingerprints and interrogation. They have embraced this project now and I even have teachers ask me if they can be suspects this year.

The latest challenge has been keeping the crime scenes fresh and interesting. More and more is expected each year and with a limited budget I have had to develop the crime scenes on a budget, using any room they give me.