Forensics Self Paced (Grades 7-12)

Forensics

Instructor: Collins

This is a FULL YEAR of forensics, condensed into an 18 unit course. Is your child interested in a unique science credit course? A career in forensics? This course will teach your child how to analyze crime scenes and how to use problem-solving skills. This course will count as an elective or 4th science credit for highschoolers.

Class experience-

This is one of the most popular forensics courses on Outschool and for charter school programs. Mrs. Collins has had over 250 students complete the class in the first months of offering the course. So this is a very popular science credit course.

Class is normally offered in a private school setting for $599, but discounted to help homeschoolers, private school, public school students, and others for $99 for a set time period.

This course is commonly used to meet high school science credit. This course falls into the same category as Biology, Anatomy, Chemistry and Environmental Science for science credit. 

Forensic Studies encompasses the wide array of academic disciplines that apply specific knowledge, techniques, and technology to the investigation of crimes and to the law.  

This course will include a textbook in pdf online format, videos summary clips on some topics, weekly chapter reading assignments, written response activities, graphic organizers, diagrams, experiments/labs, notecards, discussion questions and demonstrations. 

***Pre-requisite: It is recommended that students have knowledge of basic middle school science before beginning this course. The course is geared towards high school students, but middle school students are welcome too. Parents are asked to help the student the first week of class. This course involves independent reading and inquiry based learning at an 8th grade reading level. This may not be suitable for students with learning disabilities because of the large amount of material condensed, please reach out to the instructor to see if this class will be a good fit for your child's learning style. 

HOW A FLEX CLASS WORKS:

A flex class means that the class does not meet for live meetings, but instead the lesson will be uploaded for the student at his or her convenience via slideshows, videos or chapter pdfs to read.  Each Sunday the week's lesson will be uploaded.  This class does involve a lot of independent learning so all flex parents are asked to check the class wall once a week to make sure the child is working at a steady pace, coming the tasks in order, and not accumulating missing work. 

HOW IS THE MATERIAL PRESENTED:

This course contains 17 chapters provided, complete with chapters to read (10-15 pages each week), case studies, practice questions, and optional labs in each pdf chapter.  Each week a new pdf chapter will be uploaded for the student to read, and then make notecards over the vocabulary at the beginning of the chapter (total of 10-12 vocabulary notecards each week). Students will upload an image or video to show cards have been completed before beginning the chapter readings. Each chapter will also have 1-2 discussion questions to answer on the class wall. These discussion questions are standards based, and tailored for the chapter. The tasks will need to be completed before moving onto the next chapter. Students are asked to complete all task on the class wall to help with comprehension, and not skip tasks. To meet state science lab requirements, several labs will be provided with instructions on how to compete the lab from home. After each chapter a test link will be provided using Quizlet and Quizizz.

Testing: Students will be provided a code to take tests on Quizizz. When convenient, students can test and retest as needed. All assessments will be graded immediately. 

WHAT TOPICS WILL BE COVERED:

Chapter 1 Intro To Forensics

Chapter 2 Crime Scene Investigation History And Protocol

Chapter 3 Hair Sampling

Chapter 4 Fibers And Textiles

Chapter 5 Spores and Pollen

Chapter 6 Fingerprints

Chapter 7 Fingerprints And DNA

Chapter 8 Blood

Chapter 9 Drug Toxicology

Chapter 10 Handwriting Analysis

Chapter 11 Cause Of Death

Chapter 12 Soil Analysis

Chapter 13 Forensic Anthropology

Chapter 14 Glass

Chapter 15 Cast And Footprints

Chapter 16 Tool Marks

Chapter 17 Ballistics

At the end of the class, students will be asked to complete an interest project. Students will pick a chapter that he/she would like to research more. Then the student will summarize it with a visual demonstration, paper, diorama or slideshow.

Sample video-https://www.canva.com/design/DAFv2JPDq70/mIAbUyyOsW7zSIeAU4SCTw/watch?utm_content=DAFv2JPDq70&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor

This class is very unique because it meets the needs for students who are looking for a full year science credit and students who would like to finish a full year in a semester for a condensed method. The Google Classroom was created with both in mind and clear titles instructions on how to complete it either way.