On June 13 and 14, Ms. Jessica Baker’s Forensic Science classes solved murders. As a final project, students in each class had to design a murder for the next class period to solve.

Junior Naomi Conaway said, “What was awesome was getting to create your own crimes for different classes to solve. At the end of each unit, [Ms. Baker] would let us have time to use the stuff we’ve learned about in the unit and create crimes and set them up with evidence and everything. Then we’d rotate to solve each other’s crimes and collect evidence.”

This year was the first time Forensic Science was offered as an elective, and many students jumped at the opportunity to take the course.

Throughout the semester, students have studied the collection of physical evidence, including hair, fingerprints, document analysis, and weapons. The analyzed blood splatters, bullet and gun identification, toxicology, entomology, arson, tire tracks, and so on.

“Certain blood splatters can tell you how someone died. You can figure out where a fire started, time of death, and find the difference between bones in anthropology,” said Conaway.

“It’s a really great and fun class,” she said, “We watch a lot of important case documentaries to connect what we’re learning.”