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February 24, 2017 at 10:49 am |

(Photo by MARY MALONE) During Sandpoint Middle Schools crime scene investigation class Thursday, eight-grader Koby Black replaces a card in the line-up with a card that has a similar design while classmate Conagher McCown, after memorizing what the cards were before, looks away. Afterward, Conagher correctly pointed out the card that had been changed, proving he would be a good eyewitness.

(Photo by MARY MALONE) Sandpoint Middle School seventh-graders Anna Auld, right, and Emma Thielbahr, left, work on solving cases last week during crime scene investigation, a new elective at the school.

(Photo by MARY MALONE) During Sandpoint Middle Schools crime scene investigation class Thursday, eight-grader Koby Black replaces a card in the line-up with a card that has a similar design while classmate Conagher McCown, after memorizing what the cards were before, looks away. Afterward, Conagher correctly pointed out the card that had been changed, proving he would be a good eyewitness.

(Photo by MARY MALONE) Sandpoint Middle School seventh-graders Anna Auld, right, and Emma Thielbahr, left, work on solving cases last week during crime scene investigation, a new elective at the school.

Editors note: This is thefourth in a series of articles focused on some of the new electives at Sandpoint Middle School that give seventh- and eighth-grade students a jump-start in learning hands-on skills. This article delves into the world of science, featuring the new crime scene investigation class, and touching on a few other exciting science electives offered. The next story will look at media with the middle schools morning news crew.

By MARY MALONE

Staff writer

SANDPOINT Crime scene investigators had two suspects in the break-in of theSnack Shack.

The suspects, Nathan and Trevor, said they were fishing all day. However, when questioned,the conversation turned to food and Trevor saidhe didn't have enough money to buy food from the shack becauseMr. Levine raised theprices by 10 percent.

This is a short summary ofoneof many cases the Sandpoint Middle School CSI team will solve throughout the semester.

After reading through the case Thursday, some of the studentsdeduced that Trevor was the culprit. Mr. Levine had only raised the prices that morning, so if Trevorhad in factbeen fishingsince dawnand had spoken to no one as he said,he could not have known that.

Eighth-grader Koby Black saidlearning tocatchthe accidental thingssuspects sayis one of the things they have been learning during the middle school's new CSI elective. He also learned that fingerprints don't burn.

"Say someone spilled a bottle of vodka all over the floor and then lit it (on fire), the fingerprints that held it would not burn," he said, adding that he enjoys crime scene investigating.

"There is a channel, Investigation Discovery, I watch that all the time."

Conagher McCown, eighth grade, said when he was growing up, he watched a lot of different mystery shows like Scooby Doo, but didn't realize how much investigation is needed in real crime.

"I never knew it went so deep into blood, fingerprints, DNA testing, figuring out what started a fire it goes way deep into the crime," Conagher said.

Also, if anyone needs an eyewitness, Conagher is the one to call. The two were playing a game in class Thursday where Koby laid down three cards with different designsto start with. Conagherstudied the cards and then turned around, during which time Koby would replace one with a similar design. Conagherhad to figure out which card Koby changed each time. Koby kept adding cards as well until Conagher had 15 cards to memorize. He chose correctly though every time a card was changed, even when all 15 cards were down.

CSI instructor Caitlin Peterson saidforensic investigatingrelates well to core science classes because it reiterates the use of the scientific method.

"In investigating, they follow the same steps as far as making observations and then using those observations ... they are creating educated guesses and coming up with a hypothesis, which is what investigators do," Peterson added.

She said they will use the scientific method more during the semester when they go over crime scene evidence in the lab portion of the class, such asblood spatter, blood typingand trace evidence left behind like hairs and fibers.

Thestudents keep aportfolio of all their work and by the end of the semester it will be full of notes on crime scenes and evidence they worked on. In total, the classwill cover six or seven units, time permitting, including crime scene and eyewitness basics, the power of evidence,blood basics, forensic entomology, forensic anthropology, arson investigation andaccident reconstruction.

The students are finishing up the first unit of the semester and in thenext unit, the power of evidence, the students willcreate and lift latent fingerprints, Peterson said.

The class will do more intenselab work beginningin March, which will include the aforementioned topics such as blood spatter and blood typing, as well asexploring thelife cycle of maggotsto determine time of death hopefully with real maggots, Peterson added.

The class is funded by a grant through Panhandle Alliance for Education.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.

Read more from the original source:
SMS students dig in to capture the clues - Bonner County Daily Bee