Class: 7th Grade Science and Forensic Science – CSI BCDS (BVR-X)
Grades: 7th, 11th and 12th
Teacher: Carissa McKinney (MS), Larry McKinney (US)

The Upper School Forensics class, CSI Beaver, created a crime scene project for 7th grade science students to solve. In this science-based Murder Mystery-esqe challenge, the Upper School students acted as the lead detectives on the case. They presented the scene of the crime to the Middle School students, shared mugshots and alibis for five suspects, and walked them through the steps they needed to take to determine the culprit of the crime. Middle School students lifted fingerprints, did blood typing, and used evidence left at the scene to come to a conclusion.

“One of the things that I love about this project is that it’s at the beginning of the term, and it allows the students to come up with their own backstory, use whatever evidence they want, and be as creative as possible as to what caused the death (poison, electrocution, stabbing, blunt force trauma, etc.). Because they are working in groups, there is a lot of shared excitement in the project as well as trying to solve what happened at the other crime scenes. They take pictures and see what evidence is there and try to solve the puzzle of what happened.” – Larry McKinney, US Science Teacher

More about this course: Forensics is the application of science to solve crimes using evidence that will be admissible in a court of law. A multidisciplinary approach that encourages analytical thinking and problem solving in biology, chemistry, and physics will be used. Students may cover the following topics: deductive reasoning, fingerprinting, qualitative analysis of substances such as fingerprints, blood, DNA, document analysis, and ballistics. Along with lab work, students may do research projects, look at the legal aspects of forensic science, take field trips, and solve mock crimes.