	IMSA Excellence 2000+ Curriculum CSI: IMSA E2K+
Navigation	Unit Overview
Unit Overview Meet the Evidence Crime Scene Shoe Prints We'll Never Tire Bad Hair Day? Analyzing Hairs Probable Cause Fingerprints: Are there enough? Make & ID Fingerprints Analyzing Fingerprints Develop the Case Web Resources Ideas for Field Trips	CSI: IMSA E2K+ engages the students in inquiry and problem solving using forensic science techniques. This problem-centered unit embeds students in a crime scenario, which they are challenged to solve; in the process they must learn and apply an array of concepts that integrate mathematics and science. Communication and collaborative team work are a focus as the students work together to find out “Who Done It?” Through the activities of this unit, students will: hone their observational and pattern-recognition skills by investigating fine-level details in various types of evidence; learn some of the techniques of forensic science, and apply these to attain deeper understanding of concepts in physics, biology and mathematics; develop skills in technology application by conducting Internet searches, using Excel spreadsheets to organize and display data and evaluating information obtained; and, assemble disparate pieces of evidence to construct a cohesive picture, so as to gain understanding of the analogy between scientific inquiry and criminal court cases. True scientific inquiry in many ways resembles the development of a criminal court case. Both feature the accumulation and analysis of data and evidence, and its organization into a cohesive whole. Both require that practitioners build on previous findings. Both require the practitioner to present their ‘final product’ to a jury of their peers, who then ultimately decide whether to accept or reject the work. In both cases, the practitioners have found that the path to acceptance becomes easier when several fundamentally different types of evidence all point to the same conclusion. Unfortunately, scientific inquiry is rarely presented this way in schools, where even most hands-on laboratory activities have a predetermined answer, and students are rarely exposed to the arguments considered by scientific communities before they accepted a given model. In this unit, students will experience true scientific inquiry, including peer review, as they develop a formal criminal case against the perpetrators of a specific crime: the vandalism of a high school.

The scale: A metaphor for justice and for measurement

IMSA Excellence 2000+ Curriculum

CSI: IMSA E2K+

Navigation

Unit Overview

Meet the Evidence

Crime Scene Shoe Prints

Fingerprints: Are there enough?

Make & ID Fingerprints

Analyzing Fingerprints

Develop the Case

Web Resources

Ideas for Field Trips

CSI: IMSA E2K+ engages the students in inquiry and problem solving using forensic science techniques. This problem-centered unit embeds students in a crime scenario, which they are challenged to solve; in the process they must learn and apply an array of concepts that integrate mathematics and science. Communication and collaborative team work are a focus as the students work together to find out “Who Done It?”

Through the activities of this unit, students will:

hone their observational and pattern-recognition skills by investigating fine-level details in various types of evidence;
learn some of the techniques of forensic science, and apply these to attain deeper understanding of concepts in physics, biology and mathematics;
develop skills in technology application by conducting Internet searches, using Excel spreadsheets to organize and display data and evaluating information obtained; and,
assemble disparate pieces of evidence to construct a cohesive picture, so as to gain understanding of the analogy between scientific inquiry and criminal court cases.

True scientific inquiry in many ways resembles the development of a criminal court case. Both feature the accumulation and analysis of data and evidence, and its organization into a cohesive whole. Both require that practitioners build on previous findings. Both require the practitioner to present their ‘final product’ to a jury of their peers, who then ultimately decide whether to accept or reject the work.

In both cases, the practitioners have found that the path to acceptance becomes easier when several fundamentally different types of evidence all point to the same conclusion. Unfortunately, scientific inquiry is rarely presented this way in schools, where even most hands-on laboratory activities have a predetermined answer, and students are rarely exposed to the arguments considered by scientific communities before they accepted a given model. In this unit, students will experience true scientific inquiry, including peer review, as they develop a formal criminal case against the perpetrators of a specific crime: the vandalism of a high school.