Forensic Science Education: Designing an Effective Curriculum--The Penn State Model

• NCJ Number: 215075
• Journal: Forensic Magazine Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: June/July 2006 Pages: 29-30,32,34-35,37
• Author(s): Mitchell Holland; Daniel Sykes; Robert Shaler
• Date Published: June 2006
• Length: 6 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article describes Penn State University's undergraduate forensic science program, which combines a foundation in the sciences with practical, hands-on training.

Abstract

Undergraduates who want to become forensic scientists must understand the nature of evidence, how it can be collected and preserved at the crime scene, how it is processed in the laboratory, and how the rules of forensic analyses are delivered to the legal system. Under the Penn State model, these objectives are achieved through practical, hands-on training. The roots of a forensic science education are in the basic sciences of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. Reflecting this foundation, the Bachelor of Science in Forensic Science (BSFS) program at Penn State is administered in the Ebery College of Science, where students can major in premedicine, microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and forensic science, along with a host of other scientific disciplines. Students who graduate with a BSFS can enter a variety of occupations, including work in a crime laboratory or crime scene investigation unit or as a chemist, biologist, biotechnologist, or biochemist in almost any other science-based laboratory. In order to facilitate hands-on training, a building was recently renovated to create a technologically advanced, realistic crime scene investigation training facility. A student's first hands-on introduction to forensic science is an intensive crime scene investigation course, usually in the sophomore year that covers the full range of crime scene investigation. Following training in crime scene investigation and the collection of evidence, students take the second in a series of three courses that involve work in a laboratory designed to imitate a real crime laboratory. Other courses are set in the context of a criminalistics laboratory, a forensic biology laboratory, and a forensic chemistry laboratory.