OVERVIEW
You will be researching one specialized area of Criminalistics or Forensic Science in a group of four (4) people. It will be presented in the form of a PowerPoint presentation in a seminar style. Your goal is to present the type of Forensic Science: what does it mean; how does it work in practice; investigation procedures and requirements; how they work with police, lawyers, and other law enforcement; what type of education is required; what does their work environment look like, etc? After, you will connect your type of Forensics to some well-known fiction, such as a fairy tale or nursery rhyme (which you can tweak if necessary to fit your needs), and discuss how your Forensics would be applied to this case. These questions are meant as prompts, you do not necessarily have to hit each one exactly and should not organize your PowerPoint based on these prompts as titles.
The main thing to keep in mind is that this is a Law class, not a Science class. So, while there is obviously cross-curricular requirements for this assignment (yay!), you need to ensure you are tying it back to Law.
Furthermore, remember this is not a divide-and-conquer assignment. This is something each person needs to know every, little, piece about and your presentation is clearly interwoven with all of you equally involved in all parts.
SEMINAR REQUIREMENT
You need to be consistently interacting with your classmates, stopping here and there to ask open-ended questions. This is called a “seminar style.” If all you do is a presentation (talk at the class about your research), that would be not meeting expectations for this assignment.
A seminar style presentation does not mean one moment of interaction. It means you are consistently engaging the class consistently and repeatedly throughout the entire presentation. This can include big or small moments, such as:
- Asking the class questions. Can be as simple as “What do you think?” Try keep them open-ended and not ones with an obvious answer.
- Creating an activity.
- Making some sort of handout to supplement what is going on and have them analyze it.
- Be creative! Ask Ms. Hopkin if unsure, but it can honestly be a simple as just stopping and asking your classmates questions throughout.
- No Kahoots allowed!
As an audience, you are engaging constantly. You should be ready to jump in and support presenters in their seminars. You may also put your hand up at any point and ask the presenters questions. Presenters should finish their thought, then answer when able.
Your interaction with your classmates will not count towards your time. However, due to the need to have presentations done within a certain period of time, you will have a maximum of 20 minutes total per group, so try keep your interactions within 5-6 minutes total
PRESENTATION ELEMENTS
Notice that it says PowerPoint. As in Microsoft PowerPoint. As in not Keynote, not Google Slides, not Prezi, not anything that is not Microsoft PowerPoint.
Ensure you include both images and text. There should be a reasonable balance with each on your slides. They should not be cramped full of things, nor should your slides be nearly empty.
Ensure your presentation is evenly balanced between each person in your group. It should not be broken up to each person doing a “part.” You should naturally be flowing back and forth complimenting each others’ words because you all know all of the information. Each human in the group is allowed to have five (5) cue cards, one side only (the lined side). These will be provided for you.
Presentations should be exactly between fifteen to sixteen (15-16) minutes. A good strategy would be to aim for around 16-ish minutes since you always speak faster when you present. You will have ample amount of class time, which means you will need to rehearse with your group to ensure you are within the time frame. The requirement for the final class before presentation day (14 April 2023) will be the entire class must be spent rehearsing and timing. You should also be gauging how the class will respond to your seminar engagement.
You are welcome to also have a timer going whilst you present.
Though given the nature of this type of research, it is still expected all images are school appropriate. Just because you might be comfortable with something, does not mean everyone is, and there are plenty of ways to tastefully give this information. If you are unsure, always check with your teacher.
How we are going to do this in our new and exciting age, is through Teams. Once I have your groups, I will be making a channel for you within the Law 12 Team. Just remember to tag your group members and NOT the name of the group. Your groups will be public, so if you tag the group name, the entire class gets the notification.
TOPICS
You will have a lesson on the topics prior to choosing so your group has time to come up with a couple of choices. Everyone will be doing a different topic. The topics will be decided by random draw.
- Forensic Serology.
- Forensic Odontology.
- Forensic Entomology.
- Forensic Anthropology.
- Blood Pattern Analysis.
- D.N.A.
- Forensic Investigation of Explosions.
- Ballistics and Firearms.
- Tool Marks and Impressions.
- Hairs, Fibres, and Paint.
- Fire Investigation.
- Forensic Toxicology.
- Document Examination.
RESEARCH
Starting Research for You: The Criminalistics (Forensics) source from university days. Lucky you! This will be posted in a File in Teams. You should read the chapter from this source on your topic first before any other source to get a thorough understanding and prepare you to research. Again, each person individually reads the entire chapter – DO NOT DIVIDE AND CONQUER – get a good, comprehensive understanding, then move forward to find other corroborative evidence.
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT ASK MS. HOPKIN HOW TO CITE THIS without thoroughly looking at the files provided for you in Teams from this source.
In addition, you need a minimum of ten (yes, 10) academic sources. Five of these sources must be academic journal articles, which is how academic research, statistics, findings, and hypotheses are documented. Since you are so fortunate, Pinetree has a subscription to the extortionately expensive Academic Search Premier (also known EBSCO Host), which has access to tens of thousands of academic journal articles.
Things that are studies on EBSCO typically say words like “Journal Article” or “Periodical.”
Apparently, you can also try contact the authors of the articles and they might send them to you! (Not required!).
The rest of your sources may be any academic source.
CITATION
You will be required to formally cite your sources in APA style citation. Ms. Hopkin will be distributing APA Guide (in Teams already), and you will have one full lesson in class specifically on this topic with examples.
ASSESSMENT
You will be graded holistically on this assignment. From the moment you and your group set to work, your use of class time, to the content of your presentation, research capabilities, correct engagement of seminar style, to the professionalism and articulation of your seminar are all a part of your grade in addition to the content and your understanding of Forensics in Criminal Procedure and Evidence. You will all be assessed individually, not as a group, though one aspect of that assessment will be how you work within your group.
Submission of Slides: End of class on Monday, 15 April 2024. There will be an assignment upload on Teams.
Presentations will start on Tuesday, 16 April 2024 and likely continue until 18 April 2024.
