February 25, 2013 Week 3

Forensic Sleuthing Week 3: "Get The Dirt on the Culprit"

This week students got to examine evidence from a crime scene.  A criminal is charged with shoplifting from a convenience store (stealing snacks and 30 gallons of gasoline).  As he was committing the crime he carelessly left behind a trail of dirt. The store clerk also mentioned that the man drove a truck and the truck had the word "farm" on the drivers side door. Since there were no video surveillance tapes to help out all we had to go was a sample of dirt left behind and the truck clues.  We found out that there were two farms in the area that have trucks with the word farm in the side.  We got soil samples from each farm and compared the soil samples with the samples found at the crime scene. Using an indicator solution, we were able to tell how much organic matter was in each sample and narrow the farms down to one farm.  This farm had one man working for them that fit the description given by the store clerk.   

Do you see what I see? (Week 2)

February 11th : Week 2 Forensic Sleuthing (Do you see what I see? Part 2)
This week students were again challenged to describe a person that they see often (Mr. Thompson) to a police sketch artist.  Using a computer program similar to what is used by some police departments we tried to recreate Mr. Thompson's face on our Smart Board.  The process took a while and what we came up with was pretty interesting to say the least!!!! We tried again to create the face of Mrs. Searing on of our 6th grade teachers who stopped in briefly.  With this second try were were more successful....but perhaps only because she stopped in and were able to examine her face briefly.  The process of being an eyewitness is more challenging that most of our IMSA students bargained for!!!

Do you see what I see?

January 28th: 1st meeting for the "Black Dirt, Bones & Burns Forensic Sleuthing Unit!!!!!

This week students were asked to define the term forensic science, make observations regarding an event that took place while they were involved in another activity, and consider the relative importance of eyewitness testimony and forensic evidence. Students discovered that being an eyewitness to an event that they do not see coming is more challenging than it might seem. Recalling facts that you weren't sure you were supposed to be watching for is not a simple task and as a real life eyewitness, you would feel tremendous pressure to get your facts "straight"!!!!