woodchurch science

suitable for: ks4 pupils & teachers, this access excellence activity from the us national health museum poses a murder in a school biology laboratory. to solve the crime, students perform hair microscopy, blood (artificial) analysis, ink chromatography and dna fingerprinting, together with analysing other evidence and interview information.

suitable for: ks4 pupils & teachers, this csi activity takes viewers through the initial stage of a “walk through” of the crime scene to get a feel for matters, then the task of documenting the scene, collecting evidence, crime laboratory processing, analysis and reporting. there is even comment from a forensic scientist as to how realistic the tv series are.

suitable for: ks4 pupils & teachers, this site provides a rather different angle - how carefully evidence needs to be gathered, processed and communicated to juries. It provides an array of court cases in which the evidence was inadequate but where convictions took place. there are also reports on the reliability, or otherwise, of various techniques employed in this field.

suitable for: ks3 pupils & teachers, here the students can solve a fictional crime through the analysis of hair and thread samples and fingerprints.

suitable for: ks4 teachers, this is a vast resource of links to forensic science in general, to entomology, palynology (study of fossil spores and pollens), medicine, anthropology, arson, bombing, explosions and more.

suitable for: ks4 pupils, teachers and careers advisers, this is a careers website from connexions.  it gives details of the job forensic scientists do, typical salaries, entry requirements, career development, training, case studies, where one might be employed and more.

a good grounding in chemical sciences can open the door to a vast and varied range of options - far wider than you may have realised. careers in sportswear development, forensics, drug discovery, biotechnology, and art restoration represent a handful of fields open to students with post-16 qualifications in chemistry. during your higher education you will also acquire an excellent range of transferable skills which are highly attractive to potential employers. skills such as numeracy, observation, problem solving, communication, data handling and team work.