Conspiracy at Bancroft’s?

After seeing how the experts do it on “CSI” the Removes (year 8)  had the chance to become forensics experts for the day and solve a crime!  Thankfully the scenario was fictitious, although the methods the children were encouraged to employ were based on those used by real-live forensics teams.

During a presentation on Monday 21 May, James Finger  of Education Interactive, an ex-member of the New South Wales police force and so no stranger to crime scenes, presented “A Case of Conspiracy?”.  He started by giving the children a crime scenario: a drug dealer had been found murdered and an 18 year old bricklayer arrested.  However, he continues to protest his innocence.  Has he been framed or is he actually guilty?

The children were then instructed to visit ten various stations to collect all the evidence and answer a series of questions to solve the crime.  The stations included: an autopsy report, trace evidence, fingerprints, ballistics and DNA.   The children learnt how Forensic Science helps the Police to solve crimes every day. They will discover how forensic evidence is gathered, how it is analysed and how the results of these analyses are compiled to provide a detailed picture of the events leading up to a crime and of the criminal even when eye witness accounts are not available.   The afternoon also showed students how the methods and experiments that they are using in the school laboratory are developed and applied in the real world.

The afternoon was a bit hit with the would-be forensic scientists. Jessica Richardson said,   “It was good because it was a realistic view into forensic science and it was interactive.”  Tom Oliver also was very positive, “It was fun and educational.”