Before we went along the teacher kindly emailed out a handout for the children to look at and could complete if they wanted to. The first part read "WHAT IS A FORENSIC SCIENTIST" and this was the reply which really amused we three gals ...
"A forensic scientist is a scientific super sleuth who single-handedly, in about an hour and using the tiniest smidgen of evidence, can solve a seemingly insolvable crime and once they get out of their lab coat look like they have a modelling contract with a major fashion house."
The hand out then went on to explain that that's just on TV, in real life a forensic scientist is NOT multi-skilled and usually highly specialised in just one particular area or discipline. I am afraid this news has ruined all those CSI shows for me forever.
The girls then had to look up some of the types of forensic scientists listed and write what these experts specialised in.
There were forensic entomologists, forensic musicologists, forensic vets, forensic knot specialists (how cool is that for your title), forensic polynologists, forensic podiatry, forensic engineers. Forensic dactyloscopy is the study of finger prints ... who knew? There are loads of areas and if you are interested in looking up more check this site. Your kids will love you for it. I read the titles and the kids had to guess what they were ... we weren't even close!
In another post I'll let you know all the wonderful things we did at the actual event. Right now it's late and I hear biscuits beckoning to me from the pantry.
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteYou get involved in some interesting things! Do you have a homeschooling group you belong to, that organises different speakers and activities? I wonder how many homeschoolers are in your area. We aren't in regular contact with anyone, though years ago we used to meet up with other homeschoolers at least once a month.
I seem to remember forensic science can studied as a distance education degree through Open Universities. But what variety of forensic science, I have no idea! All those names. I must follow your link!
I belong to a couple of informal groups. I am the editor for one of the group terms newletter. We don't meet up with them (usually due to our distance) but we sometimes attend special activities that are organised and sometimes I even organise them myself. If we wanted to, there is a homeschool activity every single day of the week in Hamilton, that we could attend. We tend to go to as many non homeschool things as homeschooled, ie dancing, guides, rally, squash. Because we have a population in our town of 1200 and we have no family nearby I think it's nice for the girls to have some girlfriends outside of our immediate little family.
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