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There may be a few budding engineers, roboticists and forensic scientists among the area school-age population after recent summer camps at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.

Twenty-five area students participated in the new discovery camp, an educational enrichment program offered by the universitys Office of Outreach and Continuing Education for the first time this summer to engage students academically during their break from school.

Students participated in two separate week-long sessions in July: one focused on engineering and design, and the other on exploring crime scene investigation.

The idea behind the new camps, said summer youth programs coordinator Lynne Roy, is to introduce younger students to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The university already offers a STEM career exploration camp to high schools students, she said, and the new discovery camps will provide a similar opportunity for middle school students.

We want to get kids interested in STEM. Thats where the jobs are. We want them to discover new things to hopefully build a career path, said Roy.

School districts sometimes dont have the funds to provide STEM activities that a post-secondary institution can offer, she continued. Providing a setting for such educational opportunities lets students see the capabilities of a university campus.

The first session, offered to students in grades 7-9, featured computer-aided drafting and design, 3-D printers and building and programming with Lego Mindstorms robots.

In the second session, for grades 5-8, students studied fingerprinting, handwriting analysis, blood spatter patterns and chromatography.

The concept for a crime scene investigation unit originated from true crime and detective shows children might see on television.

We wanted to take something kids might have an interest in something they can relate to when they go home at night and turn the TV on and give them a taste of real life, Roy said.

The camps, taught by university instructors from various disciplines including mathematics, engineering and the sciences, attracted students from across Fayette County, as well as from Washington and Westmoreland counties, Roy said.

The sessions typically involved lecture-style instruction in the morning and hands-on activities in the afternoon, touching on a different topic each day, said Roy.

Maybe you didnt like today, but youll still have tomorrow. We wanted to offer different things each day to try to spark an interest, so when they get to their high school years, they can start thinking about what they want to do for a career, she said.

Paul Coltus, a research technologist at Penn State Fayette, said the camp utilized Wards Science kits for forensic lab activities during crime scene investigation lessons. Coltus administered a lesson on blood spatter analysis.

I hope they understand the science involved, the technology, and that its fun its not your typical classroom. Its participation based, so they take away more because they can remember what they did, said Coltus, who also organized a crime scene investigation lesson during the STEM career camp for high school students the week prior.

Hopefully, it will lead them down a path towards science. Its important that its fun and that theyre doing something they wouldnt normally do in the classroom, he said.

The 2017 Summer Youth Program at the university draws to a close this week. The college has offered educational summer camps and academic programs for 20 years. Roy said the various camps offered over six weeks this summer attracted 175-200 students.

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Area students explore new disciplines at university discovery camps - Uniontown Herald Standard

WEST HAVEN >> Crammed into a University of New Haven-owned residence at 196 Rockdale Road, 36 high school students from across the country put their newly learned forensic skills to the test, trying to figure out what happened at various mock crime scenes.

Crime Scene Investigation Academy is a week-long program that gives high school students the chance to gain hands-on experience in the field of criminal justice and forensic science. The campers spent four days learning about fingerprinting, blood spatter analysis, and crime scene investigation as a whole, and Friday they got a chance to apply the skills.

We kind of walk them through the whole process of what it takes to process a crime scene. Both from the legal standpoint and the practical, and then we culminate it ... with this big [practicum], said Peter Massey, director of CSI Academy.

The capstone experience is extremely involved as the students not only had to document and photograph the crime scene, but they also needed to get search warrants, send evidence to the lab for testing and canvass the neighborhood for potential witnesses.

Ellen Lassig, 17, of East Hanover, New Jersey, said she has been to other forensic-oriented camps, but they were larger and not as detailed and experienced. She said everyone participating at UNH gets the opportunity to do something.

Massey said there is no real answer to these scenes and that it is more a matter of process. He said what they are really looking for is ... can [the students] utilize the skill sets theyve gained during the week in this final product ... and present it in a public forum?

Bianca Randazzo, 16, of Norwalk, said while she learned how to determine the cause and manner of death as well as how to act at a crime scene, she also learned the how difficult the entire process can be.

You just think, Oh thats so easy, but then you come here and you have to figure out a whole scenario and you have no information. You just try to figure out by what you have, she said.

Massey said while forensic science and crime scene investigation may seem glamorous on television shows, the work can be pretty toiling in the real world, citing the long hours and unpredictable weather as examples.

The idea is to give the students a real-life look at how this works. They all watch the shows on television, and theyre learning its not like it is on television, Co-Director Daniel Maxwell added.

Some of the campers have graduated high school and going to college while others still are in high school. Maxwell said most of the students want to pursue careers in law enforcement, forensic psychology or forensic anthropology, and CSI Academy allows them to gain hands-on experience to see whether this is what they really want to do.

I didnt have opportunities like this in high school, but I think its a really good way for them to experience stuff like this, added Jennifer Busk, 23, a graduate student at UNH studying forensic science. I took a class that we do exactly stuff like this at UNH, but doing it as a high schooler gives you the opportunity to say, Hey, is this really what I want to do? and maybe even spark that interest and excite them.

Aaron Ostroff, 17, of South Brunswick, New Jersey, said his forensic science class last year was not as in-depth as CSI Academy. He said this camp offers him the opportunity to work on a real case as opposed to fake and silly cases he did in school.

This is the whole deal. This is not a summer camp; this is reality here, Maxwell said.

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CSI West Haven: Students attend forensic science camp at University of New Haven - Litchfield County Times

Posted On August 02, 2017

By Mike Perleberg

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) The last thing many kids want to do during their summer break is learn.

Luk Addington, however, isnt like many kids.

It was the coolest thing ever, Luk says of his experience at the National Youth Leadership Form Pathways to STEM camp at Bowling Green State University in Ohio during the week of July 16-21.

The Lawrenceburg Central Elementary 5th grader was nominated by his 4th grade teacher. When asked if he wanted to go, he jumped at the opportunity.

Because I love robotics and engineering and its just really exciting to me, Luke explains.

Luk, 10, participated in six days of discovery, going through three engaging STEM challenges in the fields of engineering, medicine, and crime scene investigation. He worked with a team of five students to build robots, dissect cow organs, and solve a crime using forensic science tools. The campers kids in 3rd through 5th grade were also taught leadership skills.

Addington would like to be a computer engineer for Apple when he grows up. He particularly enjoyed a camp exercise in which he had to help program a robot to navigate an obstacle course.

The youngster says, without a doubt, that the Pathways to STEM camp was the best part of his summer.

Luk is the son of Sally Standish, of Lawrenceburg, and Randy Addington.

Continued here:
5th Grader Spent Part Of His Summer Dissecting Cows, Solving Crimes - Eagle 99.3 FM WSCH

Family members of a murdered Brockton man made a gruesome discovery last week when they found what the police couldn't.

BROCKTON The hardest thing Joseph Shaws family has gone through was losing their son, brother, uncle and friend. Then, hearing the details of his death in court caused many of them to have to leave and added to their fresh pain.

But what they found later that day inside his apartment made their hearts break even more.

Joseph Shaw, 44, was found stabbed more than 30 times and wrapped in a blanket inside a closet at his home, 42 Green St., on July 21. His girlfriend, 33-year-old Kathryn Podgurski led police to the body and told them he had been there for about a week. She claimed Shaw was killed in a different location during an armed home invasion and that she helped move the body there, but didnt call police because the supposed suspects would have killed her.

Podgurski was first charged as an accessory after murder, but was later charged with killing Shaw during her arraignment in Brockton District Court. During that court appearance, family members burst into tears as Assistant District Attorney Richard Linehan said investigators found Shaw had been partially dismembered.

The body was also found to be missing the lower left portion of the leg and the right arm below the elbow, Linehan said. It should be noted that the severed limbs have still not been recovered.

That was until later that day, when Shaws family went to his Green Street apartment last Monday afternoon to retrieve some of his belongings. Family members noticed a backpack with blood on it. When they opened it, they discovered Shaws missing limbs inside.

The Plymouth County district attorneys office confirmed that family found what appears to be the missing limb portions, but havent discussed how investigators missed the bag.

David Procopio, a spokesman for state police, the agency responsible for investigating homicides in the city, also confirmed the discovery.

I can confirm that members of Mr. Shaws family did locate partial remains in his apartment, he said.

But he said the department plans to wait until after the trial to decide whether to perform an internal review into how the mishap occurred.

The Massachusetts State Police currently are focused on the ongoing investigation and prosecution of his homicide, he said. As such, there is no departmental review underway at this time of the victims familys discovery.

But two former law enforcement officials told The Enterprise that the discovery of Shaws remains by his family, rather than police, is cause for concern.

Thats bad police work, its real unfortunate, said Joseph Giacalone, a retired New York City Police Department detective sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The supervisor, whoever he or she is, should be removed from that unit. How do you miss a backpack? You cant afford to have sloppy police work in the crime scene unit.

In its Crime Scene Investigation guide, the National Forensic Science Technology Center describes methods for crime scene searches and says, The thorough search of a crime scene helps ensure that all relevant evidence will be recognized, documented and collected. It calls the handling of physical evidence one of the most important factors of the investigation.

Mitch Librett, a criminal justice professor at Bridgewater State University and former New York police officer, called it extremely unusual for investigators to miss such a large piece of evidence. But he said he doesnt consider it an O.J. Simpson glove moment in the case.

There could be a perfectly logical explanation for it, we just dont know all the facts, he said. But if in fact they conducted a thorough search of the apartment and didnt discover these body parts, its going to open the door for other questions.

The officials both said it will bring on additional questioning when the case goes to trial, particularly for the state and Brockton police investigators who examined the scene.

Its not going to affect the outcome of the case, but its going to take them a longer time to get there, Giacalone said. There will be a lot of drilling on stand, embarrassment a lot of things that could have been avoided. They had one chance to do the crime scene right, this isnt the playground.

And they also both said it will open the door for the defense attorney to question the thoroughness of the investigation. Podgurski is represented by attorney David Sorrenti, who recently represented a city man ultimately found not guilty in a homicide trial.

Maybe the other body parts werent there when they searched the place, Librett said. God only knows at this point whether or not this is something the police missed or whether its something that was deposited there following the police releasing the apartment as a crime scene. Thats something the defense attorney will explore.

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How will family's discovery of remains affect Brockton murder case? - Enterprise News

Stone Memorial High School's Criminal Justice team recently competed in the SkillsUSA National Competition in June. The competition was held in Louisville, KY. This is the first time competitors in crime scene investigation from Cumberland County have advanced to the national level of SkillsUSA. The students that competed were Brooke Ritzman, Autumn Begley and Kimberly Fisher. The team represented the state of Tennessee in the Crime Scene Investigation competition. SMHS placed 11th out of 35 teams from all over the United States.

Another notable accomplishment was Tyler Davis, a senior at SMHS, placing fourth in the SkillsUSA State Competition in the Criminal Justice division for the second year in a row.

These accomplishments couldnt have been obtained without support and training provided by Cumberland County Sheriffs Office, Crossville Police Department, Crossville Cumberland County Crimestoppers, City of Crossville and several other valued supporters. The Stone Memorial High School Criminal Justice Department advisors Kylee Johnson and Ivan Hawn would like to say thank you to all for supporting the students.

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SMHS Criminal Justice team competes in national competition ... - Crossville Chronicle