iServi News | 29 July 2022 | Term 3, Week 2
The 2022 Year 10 Gifted and Talented Criminology and Forensic Science course has by far been the most compelling topic we have ever done. It required lots of creativity, high order thinking and innovative ideas. We needed to think outside the box and consider all theories (regardless of how far fetched they were).
We began the term with looking at jobs in criminology and forensics, introducing us to a range of jobs and a variety of forensic roles, such as forensic psychologists, odontologists, etymologists and many more. We then began looking at fingerprints and crime scenes. We analysed and compared ways of identifying fingerprints, as well as ways of lifting and collecting fingerprints as evidence.
Our next topic was studying the importance of odontology in forensics, looking at teeth marks on crime scenes. This resulted in our class completing an interesting and entertaining experiment in which we had to match up our own teeth marks, which proved to be more difficult than expected.
Shortly after, we began using microscopes to closely observe and analyse hair and fabrics, learning about the identification strategies used on real life crime scenes. Along with hair samples, we studied DNA samples and the use of technology to copy and create written codes of DNA samples. The beginning of looking at forensic analysis of blood lead to some extremely unique and out of the box classes. We started off with simple comparison of blood types, using antigens to identify blood types.
Our study of blood progressed to the identification blood splatters, and we decided to participate in some very hands on learning, which consisted of us transforming our lab into something out of a horror movie, fake blood included. After covering the back wall of the lab with paper, we each made a concoction of red paint, dye and water and used many different methods to create a multitude of different splatters, smears and splashes of fake blood. Following our impromptu arts and crafts session, we began to analyse the different patterns made by the blood, drawing conclusions about potential objects and methods that could have been used.
To conclude our first term of forensics and criminology, Ms Bunten cleverly came up with the idea for our end of term project: to create our own simulated escape room. This task allowed us to showcase our creativity and to incorporate our newfound knowledge of crime scene and evidence analysis skills. In small groups, we each came up with vastly different themes ranging from aliens and wizards, to dungeons and pirates, to old Hollywood. Each group came up with a different mystery to solve or task to complete, with some groups choosing a typical escape room, while others went with a classic murder mystery. When we were finally able to play our simulated escape rooms, the entire class had an absolute blast, working together to outsmart our classmates. Each project was a completely different take on the task, and yet they were all equally fantastic.
We commenced our second term of GATE with a a session on criminal profiling, taught by Professor David Keatley from Murdoch University. Professor Keatley works with organisations all over the world, helping to create profiles for perpetrators of a range of crimes. For this unit we partnered with Sacred Heart, and our combined classes met with Professor Keatley online to learn more about the different types of criminals. At the end of each session, Professor Keatley would give us a real life cold case to attempt to solve.
The first cold case we were given was the bombing of Canadian Pacific Flight 21 (CPF-21), which was classified as a mass murder suicide. We were given four main suspects to research and draw conclusions about. We spent many lessons researching and discussing our findings, debating about suspects and creating an evidence board, complete with push pins and red string. We developed theories and reasoning, paying close attention to the motives of our suspects, or lack thereof. Ruling out suspects one by one, we finally settled and agreed on one of the four we were given. We presented and argued our findings to Professor Keatley and the Sacred Heart students.
The second cold case we were given was the notorious case of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer active during the 1960s and 1970s. With hundreds of suspects and no solid leads, our class quickly got to work. We researched and very soon became well acquainted with the details of the case: the victims, the crime scenes, the evidence and most importantly the ciphers. We explored many theories and ideas, choosing to take every possible approach. We found many suspicious connections and coincidences, many possible motives and an infinite number of loose ends. We once again made our evidence board to collect and present our findings. The second evidence board was significantly messier and more crowded than the first, due to the complexity of the case. When we presented our findings to the Sacred Heart group, every group had different theories, including Professor Keatley.
As a way to celebrate and bring our semester full circle, our class went on an excursion to Murdoch university. We did some introductory criminology work, followed by interactive psychology social experiments to introduce us to our new unit on Psychology. Afterwards, we took a trip to Fremantle, making a pit stop at Cicarello’s before our torchlight tour at Fremantle Prison. Exploring Freo Prison in the dark, led only by a group of small torches, was terrifying and intriguing, the true crime stories keeping us enthralled the whole way through.
Thank you to Ms Forward for accompanying us and Ms Bunten for organising our whole semester, including our excursions. The Year 10 Gifted and Talented class cannot wait to see what our next semester brings!
Jade Dimovski (SC1)
