A few weeks ago, the science department was all around the school via the forensics classes. The students we're studying blood spatter, also known as the blood thrown during a crime. The Talon decided to talk to one of the forensics teachers, Mrs. Bisesi, about the topic.
“The students were studying different types of blood spatter so that they could determine directionality, where the blood was coming from, where the perpetrator was standing, or where a victim was standing.”
Instead of using blood, though, the students used red dye and dropped it around the school.
“I tried to make it the same color, texture, and thickness of blood while keeping it clean. I mixed food dye with corn syrup.”
Mrs. Bisesi much prefers this to other ways it learning, such as taking notes or showing a PowerPoint.
“It's better than me just showing a picture on the screen, and they can actually make the drops themselves.”
Bisesi is also excited for hands-on activities like this in the future.
“In upcoming projects we'll be measuring bones and determining the gender of skeletons, and we'll be working with bugs and studying them.”
One of the more remarkable activities consisted of students walking around campus and dropping the red dye on different surfaces.
“They were measuring the sizes and shapes of blood drops on different surfaces and at different heights. In the classroom they measured it at different angles on a clipboard.”
Mrs. Bisesi says that she has had a lot of success in past years with these activities, and students started applying it to real life.
“I actually had a student who saw a void pattern and, even though it wasn’t blood, it got splashed, and they moved the object, and it left a pattern on the wall.”
She said that her favorite activity this unit was one that consisted of students dropping blood around and outside the classroom.
“What A Bloody Mess was fun, because you could make your own patterns while running or walking, and depending on the drops, students were able to tell the difference between the two.”
She’s hopeful for the future of the class, and where these activities will take the students later in the semester.
“They’re going to take the information they’ve learned, along with other lessons in the class, and put it into a final project. "They’re going to create their own lab. It’s like they’ll have a bloody toolbox.”
“The students were studying different types of blood spatter so that they could determine directionality, where the blood was coming from, where the perpetrator was standing, or where a victim was standing.”
Instead of using blood, though, the students used red dye and dropped it around the school.
“I tried to make it the same color, texture, and thickness of blood while keeping it clean. I mixed food dye with corn syrup.”
Mrs. Bisesi much prefers this to other ways it learning, such as taking notes or showing a PowerPoint.
“It's better than me just showing a picture on the screen, and they can actually make the drops themselves.”
Bisesi is also excited for hands-on activities like this in the future.
“In upcoming projects we'll be measuring bones and determining the gender of skeletons, and we'll be working with bugs and studying them.”
One of the more remarkable activities consisted of students walking around campus and dropping the red dye on different surfaces.
“They were measuring the sizes and shapes of blood drops on different surfaces and at different heights. In the classroom they measured it at different angles on a clipboard.”
Mrs. Bisesi says that she has had a lot of success in past years with these activities, and students started applying it to real life.
“I actually had a student who saw a void pattern and, even though it wasn’t blood, it got splashed, and they moved the object, and it left a pattern on the wall.”
She said that her favorite activity this unit was one that consisted of students dropping blood around and outside the classroom.
“What A Bloody Mess was fun, because you could make your own patterns while running or walking, and depending on the drops, students were able to tell the difference between the two.”
She’s hopeful for the future of the class, and where these activities will take the students later in the semester.
“They’re going to take the information they’ve learned, along with other lessons in the class, and put it into a final project. "They’re going to create their own lab. It’s like they’ll have a bloody toolbox.”