Marcela A. Oliveira-Antunovich
Lesson Plans
Activity 1
This activity is geared toward the immersion of students into the concepts of careers and education for forensic scientists. The teacher should be the facilitator in getting the students to use library and internet resources to research on either the types of careers there are for those with a forensic science background or create a "college brochure" indicating the education requirements to pursue a career in forensic science.
Outcome: students should choose between writing a bulletin about a position in forensic science or a college brochure.
Requirements: For the career bulletin, students must include a description of the career, the job requirements (skills and knowledge), and minimum education and experience requirement, as well as salary range. For the college brochure, students are required to include the college information, the different types of specializations, any entry requirements for the program, average tuition (if available), and course descriptions for a chosen specialization.
Activity 2
This activity is geared toward the introduction of calculations and analysis of the skid to stop calculations. Students must create a standard curve with random speeds so that it may be using in estimating the person's speed for the scenario provided.
Outcome: students should develop five graphs on Excel© for each of the different surfaces provided in table 1 of the appendix. In using this, make sure to determine the line of best fit for the data points. When given the length of the skid mark, students will then be able to estimate the speed at which the car was going before it came to a stop. Remember, if there were skid marks, it means that the person had a reaction and were still conscious; if there were no skid marks, the person was not conscious and may not have had a reaction.
Activity 3
This activity works as an introduction to fingerprinting through the use of an interactive website. Students will understand the process of uniqueness prior to delving into the topic and utilizing provided DNA fingerprints to identify the culprit.
Requirements: Students must be given access to the internet in order to complete this activity. They will be provided with a partner and together they must solve the mystery at hand. Students will visit the website provided by PBS and complete the assignment. Once the assignment has been completed, students are required to print out the confirmation page. (www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sheppard/analyze.html)
Activity 4
This activity introduces students to the differences in pH for household products. Students will be given a sampling of different products ranging from cleaning solutions to juices in their refrigerators.
Outcome: Students will be able to differentiate between basic and acidic pH and determine what types of products are either acidic or basic
Forms and Handouts: