Crime Scene Investigation

So it's a cold, wet, windy evening, you're having a quiet night in, just channel hopping through the TV stations.  Wherever you are in the world you are bound to stumble upon two things; one: trashy reality shows and two: superb crime dramas. 

The crime dramas are usually made in the US although you can't beat the likes of Miss Marple and Poirot from the UK.  There are the courtroom dramas of Law and Order, the forensic science in Bones and CSI, maths problems in Numb3rs, the body language in The Mentalist and the psychological profiling in what is my favourite, Criminal minds.  A discussion of these programs can usually enthuse even the most apathetic science student so why not use CSI in your science classroom to help your students to learn about the use of forensics in real life scenarios and encourage collaborative learning.

Following on from my previous blogpost in February where I discussed (from an ICT perspective) a unit on Forensics that I carried out last year with a class of 14 year olds.

Once they had cracked the code to enter the relevant site on the school intranet (run on the moodle program), they had to solve the crime by collecting evidence from a set up crime scene, then carried out research, interviewed suspects and presented their findings both through ongoing media reports and a mock court where they used their solid scientific evidence to name the perpetrator of the crime.

This unit required a lot of organisation but once the crime scene and resources were gathered together it ran itself for a couple of weeks.  It was very rewarding to see the students work so collaboratively as they distributed the workload and organised the practicals amongst their team while building on their personal interest and skills.  I am looking forward to running the unit again in a few weeks time.

Click on the images below to access relevant files for this Forensics unit.  Feel free to use and adapt any of the information provided.  The teacher scheme of work and information are here.

Here's some additional suggestions on carrying out interactive Crime Scene Investigations in your classroom.

	The Case of the Barefoot burglar: students use their observation skills as they solve the crime for ages 10+ years
	Interactive Investigator: is a good literacy problem solving task from the Canadian Heritage Information Network for ages 12+ years
	The Human Torch:  This an educational computer game which aims to make learning about combustion reactions, safety and risk more exciting, by harnessing students enthusiasm for games and the paranormal, as in the X Files for ages 14+ years
	The Killer's trail: helps students to learn more about forensic methods that are used in real life crimes, this activity is based on a real life, unsolved murder from 1985 in the USA, it gives good scientific background with interactives on fingerprinting and 3D mug shots. for ages 14+ years
	Crime Scene Investigator: students use logic to link together the clues, gather information about the suspects and solve each of the 5 crimes. for ages 14+ years
	Autopsy of a murder: there are excellent visuals in this interactive as students once again collect clues and learn about forensic analysis techniques. for ages 14+ years

Finally, one of the best "who dunnits" on the net.  This interactive is called "Mixed Reception" and designed by Chemistry and Drama students at Carnegie Melon University

This activity requires students to have a basic knowledge of organic chemistry, stoichiometry and enough time (I would recommend a week for them to work at home and "marinate" on the problem).  It can be downloaded for free or run online from here.

I have put together some teacher notes on this, but if you like this interactive why not email the Chemistry and Drama students at mixedreception@chemcollective.org to express your gratitude.

Have a great week, I'm off to solve the mystery of my missing sock....you know the usual scenario, you pop a pair in the washing machine and one "disappears"!