Pioneer Paranoia

Michaela Chavez|November 8, 2019

Forensics is a series of scientific tests or techniques used in connection with the detection crime. Here at Pioneer we have our own forensics course that teaches the basics of a dialectical class. It contains many hands on activities and informative captivating videos and information. There is a wide range of different forensic specialties like Computer Forensics, Forensics Toxicology, Forensic Psychology, and Geoforensics, but the forensics department that our school offers is Forensic Science which focuses on criminal investigation and corruption of civil laws. The hands on activities that this class offers is a series of using tools to help interpret mixed and degraded DNA crime scene evidence. I went out and asked five students and Mr. Enns, the forensics teacher, what forensics meant to them and a sequence of other questions.

” We have done crime scene analysis, finger print lifting analysis, hair and fiber analysis, and now we are continuing with blood drop and blood splatter analysis. I believe that students should take chemistry because it is a pre-rethorithic requisite for this class-it helps. My advice would be to try hard in class and try to be more in-depth with what’s going on, when you focus it makes the class way more fun. The types of videos that we watch all crime all the time, lots of forensic files and such-only real cases. The stuff the we do in class is how the cases that we watch get solved. Analyzing a crime scene in a way that either proves or disproves certain cases involving a violation or misdeed-basically a crime scene, is how I would describe the definition of forensics in my own words.” – Mr. Enns
“I chose to take forensics because investigating crime scene and containing the information of what happened and how really interests me. An interesting fact that I’ve learned within the class are that in the heat your blood gets thicker, but in order to make your blood thinner then you need to be in a surrounding that is very cold. One activity that really stood out to me that we did is when we did the blood experiment, we measured the blood and analyzed how big and small the blood droplets are that helped us determine which direction it could have came from. I do wish to pursue a job in forensics because I want to help those who could’ve lost a loved one and maybe give them some closure on what happened, I also find it interesting how science helps us determine the time of death, or the action that occurred to cause the death, and who the person is by their blood.” Alanie Negrete (11)
” I chose to take forensics because I wish to pursue it as a career path. A fact that I’ve learned is that blood is very messy and a little bit disgusting, but is also very helpful and an important asset to the investigation. One of my favorite hands on activity that we’ve done is going out into the parking lot and investigating a crime scene that happened within a car and analyzing everything-it was pretty hard trying to look through all the nooks and crannies, especially because the car was black on black which made it difficult to see everything. I want to seek forensics as my career path mostly because of shows like CSI-I just always had a love and interest for it, even though it can be gory and messy at times it’s still exciting-you never know what you’re going to see” – Eduardo Mendoza (11)
” I thought that it was just a cool class that I could do since I finished by agriculture. I wanted to move into something more technical like forensics. Some interesting facts that I’ve learned are that while dealing with finger prints no mistakes are allowed, they are very fragile. We’re also learning about the measurements of blood and how far it’s traveled-which is a really stunning thing to learn about. Our activities so far have been lifting the finger prints and analyzing them, examining blood samples, and my favorite was the shoe exercise that we did-it’s basically taking a shoe print to figure out what size the person or suspect is wearing and seeing if theirs blood or and creases that are different about the shoe that could eventually lead to knowing the identity of the person. I would love to pursue forensics as a career because not a lot of people want to, it’s an exciting field to go into mainly because everyday it’s something new-which I love.” – Amaya Yebraa (11)
” I chose forensic because it was the first thing to catch my eye, I thought it’d be fun and interesting. I really appreciate that it’s available to us, and we get to learn this kind of science. I’ve learned how to handle finger prints and differentiate types of blood splatter. Some activities we’ve done are looking at and analyzing crime scenes. My favorite case file was the OJ Simpson one. At first I had no interest in pursuing anything in forensics but, the more I’ve been in the class the more intriguing it seems , so no know I am very much considering it.” -Giovanni Castaneda (11)
” I chose forensics because I wanted to know how crime are investigated and solved. I have learned that criminals can be discovered with only a single hair and DNA has made it easier to find criminals. In the class I have learned to dust for finger prints and look at different hairs and fibers under the microscope. I am very excited for future investigations and facts that we will be learning about and all the future experiments that are to come. I highly recommend taking this class it’s fun and it helps you take a break from the norm and learn about something new and insane occurrences. I do want to pursue a job in forensics because it is something that would be incredible to further study and learn about.” -Katharine Mendoza (11)