Chesterfield eighth-graders get forensics lessons

In a couple of months, Samantha Teehee, an eighth-grader at Salem Church Middle School in Chesterfield County, has gone from knowing little about forensic science to being interested in a career in that field.

"It's pretty interesting all the cool things you can do," she said during a lesson in which she and her classmates analyzed stain samples in search of blood.

Virginia Commonwealth University's forensic science students are teaching Salem Church Middle eighth-graders the concepts this year.

Since O.J. Simpson's murder trial in 1995 and the rise of popular and flashy TV crime dramas such as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," the forensic science department at VCU has seen increased interest, said associate professor Marilyn T. Miller.

She took advantage of that interest and started sending her students to Richmond middle schools five years ago, she said. Three years ago, she switched to Chesterfield. Since then, her students have visited several schools.

"Chesterfield does have a history of having forensics in the high schools, so it was a nice little segue for middle school students," she said.

It's important to reach students in mid dle school before they decide whether they like science, Miller said.

When Christopher Morris, a teacher at Salem Church Middle School, heard about the option of having VCU students teach forensic science concepts, he jumped on it.

"I'm an ex-Richmond police detective myself, so I'm just as engaged as the kids," he said. "So many of them see 'CSI.' That's the hot career, something some of them want to do."

All of his eighth-graders will get forensic science lessons this year, Morris said.

VCU students teach activities on using microscopes to analyze fibers, fingerprinting and using chemicals to detect the presence of blood. One of those students, Erin Grace Summers, said that knowing that most eighth-graders have seen 'CSI,' she advised them during the first lesson that things in real crime scenes are not neatly wrapped up in an hour-long episode or don't have the drama or flashy elements of the show.

"This is a fun show, but this is a little bit different," she recalled telling the students.

Summers and another fellow student led a lesson on presumptive tests for blood. Students swabbed stain samples and used alcohol to clean the sample, then used phenolphthalein reagent and hydrogen peroxide drops to detect the presence of blood or another bloodlike chemical.

"It wasn't blood. It's just garlic," Mike Shurland said after the sample he tested showed no color reaction.

Sierra McDade said she liked the hands-on forensics lessons.

"We always have the option to do stuff instead of just talking about it."

Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or .