Finding evidence for engagement
How Forensic Science Took Off at Archbishop Wood
Last Spring at Arcadia University, a group of visiting students from
Archbishop Wood High School walked into what looked like a living room from
any American home. Presented with a meticulously laid out environment, the
class knew they had no choice: the place had to be turned upside-down.
They flipped over furniture. They snapped photos. And they started swabbing
every surface for drugs and bodily fluids. It was everything their teachers
could have asked for.
That’s because Archbishop Wood science teachers Sharon Hartranft and Steven
Waskie have been leading a growing number of 11th and 12th graders through
a very hands-on course in Forensic Science. Arming students with chemical
test kits, trigonometry, and the real-world skills to start understanding
and solving crimes, they’ve taken the program from a two-section elective
to a science sensation with over 170 registered students.
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A Motive for Student Motivation
The course’s popularity is due in no small part to Hartranft’s work over
the last five years. Starting from the basic structure of her predecessor
and the drug-identification material presented in the class’s textbook,
she has been deepening and expanding what it means for students to study
forensics, with the aim to give her students — and herself — a more
interesting and hands-on experience.
“I spent my entire first summer before teaching at Wood researching
criminology and forensics,” Hartranft says. “I told the kids if the
FBI took my computer, they might think I’m a serial killer because of
everything I had to look up and prepare.”
Armed with material specifically aimed at junior and senior
students, she was able to give them an interactive, project-
based approach to forensics, instead of one dominated by
math lectures.
“When you start talking at students, even if it’s about
murders, their level of connection to the material drops
dramatically,” she says. “That’s why Steve [Waskie] and I
are trying to develop a class that is more hands on, more
about open-ended investigations. We want students to figure
out solutions and engage in critical thinking.”
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“I told the kids if the FBI took my computer, they might think I’m a
serial killer because of everything I had to look up and prepare.”