IGNITE Summer 2019 | Page 11

chemical composition comparison 2 collecting fiber samples documenting tread Putting the Pieces Together While the actual projects students take on can range in scale between the academic level, college prep, and honors sections of Forensic Science, every student will be faced with puzzles that challenge them to think about the science of a crime scene. That can range from “simple” exercises — like urine analysis labs or fluorescent light screening — to more complicated projects asking students to construct and deconstruct the actual elements of a crime. “Steve and I build a series of mini crime scenes on the floor of the lab. Students come in and process the scene. They take evidence, measure it, perform calculations, and try to deduce what happened based on evidence,” Hartranft says. let's see if the shoe fits... “After that, we have students research a serial killer and build their own crime scene in a shoebox, replicated from the serial killer they’ve studied. They seal the box and exchange it with another student, after which they perform the same kind of investigation.” 11