By Chadwick '27
Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) is usually associated with real-life detectives and intense crime scenes, but at The Field School, the crime scenes are fictional and fun. As part of Field’s Intersession program, students have spent the past two weeks completing labs to design their own crime scene for others to investigate. The purpose of the CSI course, led by Kyle Augustine and Scott McLetchie, is for students to build experience with the scientific process, chemistry, physics, and skills in analyzing qualitative and quantitative data. The instructors host collaborative scenarios to explore how investigators think and work without the risks of real crime scenes. Students are encouraged to ask questions, test ideas, and work together to solve each case, analyzing evidence such as videos, fingerprints, footprints, and other clues left behind at a scene.
In preparation for their culmination students visited the Spy Museum in downtown D.C to experience the life of a spy and learn how to use forensic clues to detect a mole within a group. Each student played a role by encouraging one another, communicating clearly, and contributing their ideas that would help solve the investigation. They also used advanced, covert machines that can reveal hidden messages beneath visible text. By using these techniques from investigators, students can turn learning into an exciting experience.
As their final project, students are using all the knowledge and experience they gained from solving crime scenes to create their own hands-on crime scene. They’re using the clues that they learned about detective work to help design the process of the scene, gaining confidence while learning how investigators think, while building ideas with each other. "My favorite moment of this Intersession was seeing the students set up their crime scenes and how they jumped into it,” says Kyle. Ana ’29 was surprised how “the course related so much to real-life situations in school, and one of my favorite moments in the Intersession was the bloodtyping lab we did.”
