Friday, July 13 — Day 19 Program Wrap-Up The field school has come to an end but it is really just the beginning for our students. They are very gifted and I see them all having great careers in anthropology and the forensic sciences. I enjoyed the time I spent with them and will be…
Thursday, July 12 — Day 18 Courtroom Testimony Today was the trial, the culmination of all of our hard work and learning over the past four weeks, and it was truly bittersweet. The morning began with all of us sitting in the jury pool with raging nerves. It was fascinating to see the prosecutor and…
Wednesday, July 11 — Day 17 Building Up to the Trial Today, we held an informal Q&A for students’ final preparations before heading to the courthouse tomorrow. I can’t believe all that’s remaining in the field school is the courtroom testimonies. It seems like just yesterday was the first day for the students. What an outstanding,…
Tuesday, July 10 — Day 16 Forensic Facial Reconstruction & Courtroom Testimony Preparation Today’s style of learning was lecture based and hands on experience once again. We learned the basic techniques behind facial reconstruction. We then were divided into groups and given opportunities to try our hands at facial reconstruction. While taking turns we molded…
Monday, July 9 — Day 15 FORDISC & Bone Histology Today we learned about FORDISC, a computer program that can be used to help determine, sex, ancestry, and stature of an unknown individual. To use FORDISC you take a number of cranial and post-cranial measurements and input them into the program and it runs a…
Friday, July 6 — Day 14 Wrapping Up Excavations at Waterman Farm & Processing Evidence We actually survived a week of outdoor excavation in the blistering heat! As we finished collecting all of our evidence and the remains from the scene at Waterman Farms, I think everyone had a sigh of relief. Even though it…
Thursday, July 5 — Day 13 Excavation Continues at Waterman Farm Today started off with absolutely beautiful weather without it being scorching hot out. Our grave site was very nice and we were quickly able to finish our mapping so that we could remove the body and put it in a body bag for evidence….
Tuesday, July 3 — Day 12 Excavation Begins at the Outdoor Crime Scene Today we got into the real meat of the archaeological process, going into the ground trowel in hand and ready to dig. It was a clear sky with the sun shining down on us invigorating us with its warmth and keeping us…
Monday, July 2 — Day 11 Outdoor Crime Scene: Canine Searches and Geophysical Remote Sensing Today was our first day at Waterman Farm! We surveyed the scene looking for evidence of the three alleged burials at the farm using a line search method and marking any suspicious areas with pin flags. We examined the most…
Friday, June 29 — Day 10 Franklin County Coroner’s Office & Processing Evidence from the Crime Scene Today consisted of visiting the Franklin County Coroner’s Office, and then processing the evidence from yesterday’s indoor crime scenes. While at the coroner’s office, we got to learn about DNA analysis, and we got to visit the Toxicology lab….