Forensic Investigators

Forensic Investigators

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Forensic Investigators is Project Exploration’s newest program, created in response to student interest. After seeing the enthusiastic response to one-day and half-day forensics events held as part of Sisters4Science, Winter Science Exploration, and Not Just Lunch, we’ve decided to add a full-length forensics exploration experience to our family of programs. Open to 8th through 12th grade students in the Chicago Public Schools, Forensic Investigators will take place in August.

In this five-day intensive program, 15 students from minority backgrounds will learn about various disciplines of forensics (i.e. microscopy, biology/ DNA, latent prints, firearms and treadwear, and drug chemistry). Students will learn the basics of forensic science and then split into smaller groups to focus on a specific discipline. Each group will work with a professional forensic scientist who will teach discipline-specific techniques and build relationships with the students. All students will receive authentic forensics kits, which they will use when they move on to the second stage of the program—a staged crime scene. At the scene of the crime, they will collect and package evidence, which they will then process and analyze in a University of Chicago laboratory.

The experience will culminate in a mock trial, where students will present their findings as expert witnesses. The experience will be as authentic as possible, from the kits (including real tools such as a camel-hair brush, a photographic evidence ruler, nitrile gloves, shoe covers, and tweezers) to the skills students will learn—matching bullets, testing blood chemistry, looking for latent fingerprints, making casts of three-dimensional footprints, and more. Even the mock trial will take place at a real courtroom, complete with a jury of parents and family.

The Goals of the Forensic Investigators Program are to:

• Provide an accurate and rigorous investigation of the field of forensic science.
• Explore various disciplines within the field of forensic science
  
• Provide practical applications and discipline-specific approaches of forensic science.
• Expose students to professionals, career pathways, and professional expectations in the field of forensic science.
• Promote critical thinking, collaboration and presentation skills.