UCL Academy - outreach & engagement with schools In December 2012 the Centre was contacted by Lorraine Stolarczyk, Curriculum Leader for Physics at UCL Academy. Lorraine asked for input into the science curriculum she was designing for Year 7 (11 year olds), which had a forensic science theme. UCL Academy is a new school in Camden, sponsored by UCL. At the moment there are 180 Y7 students and 125 Y12 (6th form) students, and they will reach full capacity by 2016. As an academy, they are independent of the Local Authority and will benefit from the support of UCL - including master classes, seminars and summer schools.
A group from CFS went into the school in early January to run a couple of activities to help introduce the pupils to forensic science as a discipline. Nadia Abdul-Karim, David Pugh and Kirstie Hampson went in to talk to the students during the first week of term. We gave a brief introductory talk to 90 students, and answered some of their questions about what forensic scientists do (there were several questions about dead bodies!). Nadia then set up a mock ‘crime scene’ using everyday things a handbag, a bottle with some liquid in it, a crumpled up piece of paper and invited groups of pupils to come in and say what they thought might have happened, and what they would do if they were crime scene investigators.
SuperLab! “2053 AD. Humankind has harnessed the super abilities of comic books and science fiction. And now the battle between good and evil continues at a heightened pace.
Some unusual scenarios were suggested by some of the pupils (not to mention a fair bit of contamination when they walked all over the scene!) but they also knew more than they realised about how evidence is important to forensic scientists. Afterwards they discussed together as a large group how a real crime scene investigator would have processed the scene - looking at some real scene markers, and photos of the protective clothing worn by professional investigators.
We are delighted that were was good feedback from the teachers and the pupils, who loved the session. We look forward to working with UCL Academy again in the future and hope to build a partnership with them on the foundations of these initial visits. One idea is to run a mock trial later in the year with some of our PhD students taking part as expert witnesses to show pupils how the world of the courtroom relates to the science they are studying in the classroom. If you are interested in getting involved please get in touch with Kirstie Hampson e: k.hampson@ucl.ac.uk
Scientists have enhanced crime fighters’ human senses. The latest techniques and technology are applied to track down criminals. But these extraordinary abilities can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Evil has fought back. Reading minds and controlling people’s thoughts are possible to the skilled few. Roll back 40 years to 2013. How close are we to attaining these abilities? Probably closer than you think.” A group of PhD students, postdocs and artists - including Nadia AbdulKarim, Georgia McCulloch, Dagmar Heinrich and Helen Earwaker from the CFS - are involved in this outreach project. They mixed science and art to explore the techniques artists use, how science and art influence each other, and whether the super abilities conjured up from comic books and science fiction can soon become a reality. They ran two events during February (20th & 27th) at the Bedroom Bar in Shoreditch, London and both were hugely successful sell-out occasions. See their website for details: w: http://superlab.org.uk/index.html You can also follow them on Twitter: @SuperLAB13