Upper school Forensic Chemistry took advantage of the nice weather and moved their evidence lab outside to better accommodate social distancing. As part of their study in different types of search methods, students hid pieces of evidence across campus and had to utilize different search methods to search the area for the hidden pieces.

Students first created “evidence” such as rubber bands, paper clips, rocks, fake blood, toothpicks, etc., then hid the items around campus and roped off the area. The groups switched areas and processed the opposite group’s scene to locate eight pieces of evidence using the specific search method they were assigned. Students were assigned methods such as the spiral method (spiraling around to find the evidence), grid method (going through the area horizontally and then zig-zag it vertically), line or stripe method (up and down the area), and quadrant method (which takes more than one person and divided into squares). 

“We normally do the activity inside, but due to social distancing, we took the lab outside,” said forensics teacher Amy Henderson. “It was harder outside, but I loved that it made them see what an important and difficult job evidence collection is.”

The Forensic Chemistry course teaches students how to use deductive reasoning, math skills, and the scientific inquiry process to draw conclusions to solve the “crime.” Learn more about our upper school curriculum here.