FORENSICS

Amy Rogers, an independent education consultant for the BCI, worked with teachers, the attorney general, investigators and other scientists to distill what BCI investigators and forensic scientists do every day into a fourth-grade curriculum.

She had to meet Ohio Department of Education standards and make sure the end project helped kids learn about all subjects, hopefully in a more engaging way, Rogers said. She’s hoping it will help make teachers’ jobs easier, as children learn critical thinking and problem-solving.

They also get to find out “whodunnit.”

Seven schools across Ohio hosted pilot projects for the program, which includes activities such as solving a missing-persons case and the case of stolen fertilizer. Now, all schools in the state can use the free curriculum.

During DeWine’s visit, the fourth-graders explained fingerprinting, showed him how to identify tool marks and demonstrated what happens when sediment (graham crackers), limestone (sugar cubes) and soil (crushed graham crackers) erodes.

“I hope they come away with (the understanding that) this is real, this is how you solve crimes, maybe, ‘I’d like to be a scientist, maybe I’d like to be a forensic scientist,’” DeWine said.

Tracy Martz, a fourthgrade teacher, she said her students “love it.”

“It just hooked them right from the beginning,” she said.

Children who are gifted and those who may need a little extra help both excelled, she said.

“It was a great experience,” said 9-year-old Hannah Holderby as she and a friend demonstrated how to find latent prints on objects.

“They’re really good problem-solvers,” Martz said.