Sept. 01WESTWOOD So many students wanted to take the new forensic science class at Fairview High that administrators had to form two classes.
"I wasn't into science at all until forensics came along," said Breanna Ison, a senior. "It's way more interesting than biology or chemistry."
That may be because the class incorporates projects like mock crime-scene investigations, introduces students to police equipment like sophisticated cameras and slings around terms like "blood splatter" and "DNA analysis."
But it actually is science, according to teacher Matt Moresea. It emphasizes the scientific method and every topic, from serology (the study of blood) to toxicology is firmly grounded in biology and chemistry.
Then it is all wrapped up in a series of hands-on exercises that have the added cachet of the perennially popular CSI and NCIS television police dramas.
On Wednesday, the students were joined by Larry Boggs Jr., director of the Kentucky State Police crime lab in Cannonsburg. Boggs, who has a degree in chemistry and has trained at the FBI academy, brought in the cameras he uses to document crime scenes.
He explained the operation of the cameras and then let the students take a few shots.
He talked about the importance of photography to a criminal investigation. "Once you leave a crime scene you can never go back, so more pictures are better than not enough," he said. So he typically shoots inside and outside, tire tracks, shoe prints, vehicle numbers, plates, and vehicle damage.
As the year goes by, Moresea plans to have more KSP experts visit and share expertise on latent prints, shoe prints, entomology, blood typing and other crime-fighting lab skills.
Marshall University's forensics department also will send experts, and near the end of the year the top students will go there for a mock crime scene investigation.
They've already done one right there in Moresea's classroom and surrounding parts of the school. It involved a missing piece of memorabilia (Moresea's miniature Pittsburgh Steelers helmet) and a jelly doughnut.
The students tried out their new forensic abilities to find the helmet and the culprit. In the end, however, old-fashioned intuition helped solve the crime: Moresea did it, said senior Shelby Renfroe, who found the helmet in another teacher's adjoining classroom.
"I figured he would put it in there to frame him," she said.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or
(606) 326-2652.
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