NCIS | STEM-Works Blog

The second and final day of our CSI Teacher Workshop was a huge success. We kicked the day off with a focus on law enforcement careers, as Special Agent Ron Goates, NCIS, and Special Agent David Marshall, FBI, joined our teachers for a panel discussion.

SA Ron Goates (left) and SA David Marshall (right)

Participant Pamela Gantt-Lee and SA Goates

Participants take time to pose with SA Goates

These law enforcement officials revealed the diversity of the skill sets needed in their respective organizations and gave teachers practical information about how students can go about pursuing these careers. “It’s a world we don’t get to see on a daily basis,” explained participant Gavin Eastep, and participant Elizabeth Lattier was happy to find out that kids can bring such a wide variety of skillsets to these organizations.

Teachers then broke out into groups to continue yesterday’s exploration of subjects such as biometrics, change blindness, and soil analysis,

Hand geometry – one of the biometrics activities

Mentor Jennifer Makins discusses change blindness.

Soil analysis activity

before turning their focus to DNA. A DNA extraction activity kicked off our two-part DNA segment, allowing teachers to learn first-hand how to extract DNA from a strawberry.

Like our campers, they smashed,

strained,

and took home their own sample of DNA.

Teachers then came together for a presentation on DNA electrophoresis. During this presentation, participants learned explored genetics, and learned how to conduct their own DNA electrophoresis experiment with their students.

DNA electrophoresis presentation

After giving participants hands-on experience with some of our CSI activities, we decided to try something new. Participants spent the final session in groups applying their new CSI knowledge to create project-based units of their own. Teachers were paired with other teachers from their grade level and came up with wonderful ideas for how to incorporate CSI into their own classrooms.

During this session our teachers came up with a wide variety of wonderful ideas for CSI units at all grade levels. Stay tuned to read all of these wonderful ideas and adapt them for use in your classroom!

Sitting in auditorium on a rainy Monday morning, our boy campers received a big surprise when guys from the SMU SWAT team barged in from the back door, armed with rifles and in full suit and armor!

Luckily…no one was arrested that morning. The SWAT guys came as friends and bearers of more interesting information. They even let the boys feel the weight of a real armor vest! The SWAT team is awesome!

After a busy morning of evidence collecting at the crime scene and learning how to seek out liars, our campers received some more advice from an expert friend from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) department!

Hearing the stories from Special Agent Goates’ years of experience, the campers gained more insight into how to commence their investigation of the mysterious kidnapping at the Caruth Institute!