Murder at Old Fields: Who Killed Alexander and Rebecca Smith?

It is often quite hard to get students interested in science and how they can interact in their daily lives. Television shows like CSI have surprisingly interested the general public, including teenagers, and have pushed my students to be interested in forensic science. My students finally got their wish of a forensic class and I can't think of a better, more exciting way than to teach forensic inquiry skills by having them solve a mystery.

My students deserve to have every opportunity they can and not be limited to their Bronx zip code, and not be restricted with the limitations of blended learning that COVID-19 imposes on us.

The Murder at Old Fields kit gives them hands-on experience at doing forensics both in-person and online. The kit will help me implement more hands-on investigation activities in my classroom. The department pack with the 90 students' accounts will allow the student to do virtual laboratory investigations for the days they will not be in the building and keep track of their investigations. These investigations will be realistic and will have a central purpose: to solve a mystery!

The investigations will help students experience some of the aspects of a forensic scientist's life. They will need to do some close reading to understand the situations, investigations, and data collections to come to conclusions, and they will need to write conclusions using evidence to convince others that their solutions are right. They will apply the different concepts they learn and see real-world applications.

With your help, my students will leave my classroom feeling like science has a purpose and an important place in our society and aspire them to become the next generation of scientists.

My students and I thank you in advance for your