Students in the AP Biology and Honors Biology 2 classes participated in the annual CSI Lab Tuesday. The lab is an interactive mock-murder scene where students conduct an investigation using the skills they’ve learned in their classes.
The scene was put together by biology teacher Julia Doll and several students from the Honors Theatre Careers class, who designed it to be as realistic as possible.
“There was fake blood, footprints, an acting police officer and an acting witness, as well as real bullet shells, which we were able to document and gather as evidence, just as would be seen in a real murder crime scene,” senior Miles Rosenthal said.
The lab was conducted second hour by the Honors Biology 2 students, then again third and fourth hour by the AP Biology students. Each student assisted in analyzing the scene and searching for information that could be used to determine a suspect and piece together the murder.
The students were assigned different roles within the lab. Some, like Rosenthal, were “movers,” tasked with examining the bodies, marking evidence and taking samples.
Others, like senior Samantha Huffman, were photographers, taking pictures of the scene and documenting evidence.
“[We were] taking photos of the crime [and] any and all evidence that is linked to the crime in order to keep track of the details and evidence we gathered to support our case,” Huffman said.
Junior Makenzie Tarr was one of the students who assisted in creating the special effects for the lab. She and other students in the theater class volunteered to help set up the scene and make it a fully interactive experience for the biology students.
“We made the bullet wounds, the special effects makeup and the fake blood for the scenes,” Tarr said. “You could volunteer for a wide variety of positions for this project, like being the people who have to play dead for the scene, the witness who gets interrogated by the bio classes and the special effects crew, just to name a few.”
On Thursday, the students analyzed the evidence they had collected with their classmates. Just like in the scene on Tuesday, each student was assigned a different job to do. Some drafted a press release, some analyzed DNA samples and some, like junior Estelle Borden, acted as a supervisor over the investigation.
“I kept track of all the teams to make sure they were on track,” Borden said. “All of the supervisors answered any questions the teams had and distributed information from other groups or from the investigation.”
The lab has been an EHS tradition since 2004, when Doll and a former teacher collaborated to create a lab for the students that would be more interactive and exciting than the traditional analyses they do in the classroom.
“We saw that in the curriculum, it talked about DNA and DNA sequences and electrophoresis,” Doll said. “So instead of saying, ‘Okay, here’s the basic lab,’ we said, ‘Okay, let’s apply it,’ and CSI was born. We try to do a different scene every single year, so we have different scenarios.”
Most students look forward to the lab, with some enjoying the preview of a potential future career and others simply appreciating the chance to do something hands-on and out of the ordinary.
“I’ve been contemplating studying forensics in college and this was a great way for me to get a feel of the field,” Rosenthal said.
The lab was completed Friday, where students finalized their analyses and compiled their results. Many said it was a productive and enjoyable process, and they appreciated everyone coming together to work on such a large project.
“I had a really fun time … I was a bit nervous about something going wrong, but everything stayed on track and we had all the info,” Borden said. “I think that CSI lab is a really cool and educational lab… that students get to be a part of.”