Created in the 1940s by Frances Glessner Lee, The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death were dioramas used to train young police officers in the process of crime scene analysis. Responding to the complaint from these officers that there were too few crimes for them to analyze, Lee used her hobby of creating dioramas to address […]
In my forensics class I spend a great deal of time at the beginning of the course exploring observational skills and the role that they play in forensic investigation, whether it be on the part of the crime scene investigators looking for evidence at the scene, the detectives working the case or the witnesses who […]
The Case Study Investigation activity provides students with an opportunity to conduct an in depth analysis of a case. While forensics plays a role in all of the cases to some degree, in some of the cases, forensic analysis was key to arriving at a thorough understanding of the elements of the crime, whereas in other cases the lack of forensic testing, either because it was not done or because it was not available, proved equally significant. The list of cases represents a broad mix in terms of time period when the case took place, the historical/social impact of the case, as well as the nature of the crime of the crime itself. For these reasons and others, this activity tends to provide the class with an interdisciplinary experience, and comments such as “Oh, I remember hearing about this in history class,” are not at all that uncommon.
A sampling of cases include:
An additional benefit of the activity is that it provides an opportunity for your students to develop, refine, improve and enhance their presentation and communication skills. Presentation are 5-10 minutes and I encourage students to be creative in how they present their case. The majority of students will use Power Point or Prezi, and while many of these presentations will be quite good, some students will take their presentations to the next level. Examples include:
On the day of distribution, I normally talk about the requirements for the CSI activity which includes a discussion of how to use Power Point or Prezi as well as how to identify, assess and determine valid and reliable sources. Wikipedia is always asked about as a possible source and I tell the students that it’s okay to use it as a place to learn about the case but not as a cited source, however, links to other sources that appear at the end of the Wikipedia entry are fair game, as long as they are deemed to be valid and reliable. Students tend to be pretty adept at searching for information but I do provide them with some possible internet source such as:
Lesson Overview: We know much about the historical journey of Lewis and Clark and have probably even imagined the fears, uncertainties, and dangers that the Corps of Discovery overcame. Only a few years after the journey’s end, however, Meriwether Lewis went from finding himself as one of the most celebrated men in the country […]
New fingerprint technology is now able to reveal quite a bit of information including what the person recently ate, their sex and even possible medical conditions. Check out this article for more information. As I think about using this article in my class next year, I can imagine that it might spark an interesting discussion […]
Check out this article on the development of a database at N. C. State University that will consist of roughly 100,000 samples of dyes, test swatches and documents. It is anticipated that the database will have value to forensic scientists as well as others including the military and medicine. http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/10/3926096/ncsu-building-one-of-the-worlds.html
I know that this current year is in the process of ending (or has already ended for some) and that you need a break, but when I came across this article I thought that you might find it both interesting as well as useful when you begin your planning for next year. Starting the year […]
I was reading the article Soil Forensics Expert Digs Deep for Evidence which takes a look at the work of Robert Fitzpatrick, a specialist in the emerging field of soil forensics. Professor Fitzpatrick uses information gained from even the most minute of soil samples to reveal where people and things have been — which is usually where people […]
All four case in the Unsolved Crimes series are now available in one download. Having access to the four cases will provide you with a great deal of flexibility especially if you teach multiple sections of forensics. Use all four cases in a class allowing you to only have one or maybe two working groups […]
If you’re in need of a culminating activity that could serve as an exam or year-end project check out my Unsolved Crimes: Deathboat Case activity. Deathboat Case Overview: When multimillion dollar lottery winner, Waverly Berg is pulled from the ocean the question is, “How did she die?” Was it an unfortunate accident caused by seasickness or […]
