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Forensics in the Classroom in OSU onCampus
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Team 2
Jessica, Precious, Tymar, Eric and Stacey
Monday, August 6
Yesterday we had a series of projects.
The coolest thing for our group was cadaver dogs going to work. But the
day wasn’t all fun and games. We had a challenging crime scene map
“reconstruction of scene” and for it being our first time we think we
did a good job. Towards the end of the day we watched two movies, CSI
and Bones. When we were watching Bones, Professor Pinto pointed out a
funny fact. If the bones were placed like it was on the table then the
person would have a tail. We learned about how cadaver dogs work.
Tuesday,
August 7
Yesterday was another exciting day. To begin the day we
talked to all the teachers and asked questions. The best thing our
group did was cast tire tracks from outside. Even though the day was
very interesting and fun all together the hardest thing for my group to
do was staying awake. Towards the end of the day our group had a lot of
laughs when Dr. Angel showed us her different picture slides. Even
though the pictures were brutal the funny thing was the positioning of
the bodies. The thing we learned the most of is camera positioning and
lighting.
Wednesday, August 8
The coolest thing we did was seeing the horses DNA. The most
challenging thing was when we had to suck the white blood cells out
while trying not to suck anything else up. We learned about the
electrophoresis. The funniest thing was learning what regular gelatin
was made out of.
Friday, August
10
Today we
learned about bugs, their forensic importance, their interaction with
dead bodies, and their life cycles. When we went outside we examined
dead road kill that the Professor had collected for us to see the
maggots, flies, and other insects. We then collected flies from the
dead animals and pinned them in a box. Then the Professor showed us a
video of rabbits decomposing in different soils. Towards the end of the
day we began to process cars. Since we were using actual cars we
learned how to find fibers, fingerprints, hairs and other evidence. The
most challenging thing for us was not to leave our own evidence in the
car. But it was very cool when we realized that everything we did came
together and made sense when writing paper work.
Monday, August 13
Today we learned about bones and we found
our dig site and we started measuring it, and mapping the area. The
most challenging thing was measuring and mapping the dig site. It took
a long time to do. The coolest thing was finding the dig site and
getting ready to dig up the body, which we did on Tuesday. We also
learned about what the bones in the body do and their scientific names.
We also learned about how to find where bodies were buried and how to
measure and map it. Also, we learned about how to tell which side a
bone is facing, and how you can tell how old someone is from their
bones. The coolest thing was when we put the bones in order of body
part and decided how many people were there.
Tuesday,
August 14
Today was the second day of our digging. We learned a lot
and had a lot of fun. There were some moments when we all wanted to
give up, but at the end of the day we learned a lot. One of the things
we learned was the long process it takes to dig a body. Another thing
we learned was that the things on TV are not as accurate as we may think.
The third thing we learned was precise measurements which are very
important to find. As we were learning we also had fun. The coolest
thing for our group was actually digging up the body and seeing its
whole skeleton. Under the skeleton we found a shot gun casing and a
key. Even though that means extra work for us we still found it
exciting. The funniest thing for our group was when we all had our
minds on our work. Every time we all got focused Tymar had some kind of
story to tell. Those stories are what kept him interested in his
work. The most challenging thing was digging through the soil in the
heat. Also, trying to retrieve the skull from under the dirt without
messing up the evidence.
Wednesday,
August 15
Wednesday was a very interactive day. We started off by
listening to a lecture on bones. The professor talked about different
parts of bones and told us the names of them. Learning about the
anthropology was one of the coolest things. It was cool because we got
to measure different bones and looked at the pelvis to prove if they
were male or female.
In the afternoon, we were given
bones to find out the age, sex, ancestry, and stature of the person. It
was interesting to see what kind of person the bones were. Then we went
over our information to see what we got wrong and what was right. We
did get something wrong, we went back over the information to see what
happened. Then we filled our a paper about the bone structure of our
victim and we found that it was probably a European female. Then we ran
it through a computer program called
FORDISC
and it showed that it was most likely a European female. We looked
through a missing person book and found a girl that matched the evidence
we found at the dig site.
Thursday, August 16
In the beginning of the day, the coroner
for one of the counties in Ohio gave us a three hour lecture. The thing
he was talking about was very interesting. Even though the lecture was
long, we learned a lot. One of the things I learned was you don’t have
to be old with a lot of schooling to be a coroner. In fact there is a
woman in Indiana who is a coroner and she is only 18. Also, the only
thing she knew about forensics is CSI.
He then gave us three cases and
we had to choose if we would give an autopsy or not. There was one case
where an old man disturbed a bee’s nest and died. We then discussed the
cause of death and the manner of death. It was funny when we started to
come up with crazy possibilities that the wife murdered him with bees.
Then in the afternoon we
finished our paperwork and evidence forms and got ready for court the
next day. Then after all of the stuff was done we finished watching the
movie we started. It told us how plants and animals can help find
evidence or help find a suspect.
Friday, August 17
Today we went to court. In court the
lawyer that was defending the accused murderer asked us questions
according to our specialties. Tymar was questioned on fingerprints,
Stacey was questioned on archaeology, Precious was questioned on trace
evidence, and Eric was questioned on forensic anthropology. We were all
questioned about the crime scenes, but we were questioned by either the
male lawyer or the female lawyer. After we did our case and got our
verdict, we got to be part of the jury. As a jury we came to some
disagreements but in the end majority won. One case is that we found
the suspect guilty. Sometimes the specialist were answering questions
that weren’t in their field, which was confusing the jury and it made it
hard for the jury to decide if they were innocent or guilty. We learned
that deciding if the suspect was innocent or guilty is hard depending on
how evidence was presented. The coolest thing was being on the jury.
The most challenging thing was being up as a specialist. The funniest
thing was when the other specialists were answering questions and the
answers were funny.
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