Forensic Science 2022-2023

BTEC Forensic and Criminal Investigation 2022-2023

This BTEC examines the techniques required to either enter employment as a Forensic Science technician or to go to University to study degree courses in Forensic Investigation.

Forensic Science looks at the ways in which evidence is gathered either to solve crimes or problem solve. It looks at how microscopic clues can be gleaned from crime scenes and how they can be analysed to give important information that helps the police put sequences together to show the full picture of how a crime was committed.

This includes what happened to cause a fire, what a criminal may look like through their bite into an apple, a footprint or hair/DNA found at the scene. Students learn a range of techniques that are used to solve crime such as DNA analysis, analysis of a fire scene and Chemical Analysis.

Launch event:

Mock Crime scene.  A scenario was given with biological, chemical and physical evidence.  Students collected evidence form the crime scene that could be analysed in the lab and used later in court.

Collaborating with external visitors and organisations:

Students were able to meet with people from the world of forensics, including:

• Teesside University- DNA analysis bespoke session

• Detective Chief Inspector - preserving crime scene (combined with Criminology students, a course which has many crossover students with Forensic Science)

• Virtual webinar- Digital forensics and careers - systems technology (SYTECH)

• Teesside University - fibre damage analysis workshop

Students were encouraged to take up various opportunities which were signposted to them, such as:

• Webinars with Northumbria Police A career in the police force? 

• Northumbria NHS Foundation Trust  'DISEASE DETECTIVES' - Science at the heart of healthcare.

• Virtual insight days with Northumbria Police Criminology, Psychology, Forensics, Analytics and Problem Solving.(Who dunit?)

• Teesside University open day (in person) Life, death and forensic science 

•  GSK Apprenticeships

They also paid a visit to Durham Law Courts where they were able to sit in the public gallery to observe several cases taking place and discuss the cases and potential careers in law with barristers.  This was followed by a visit to Teesside University, where they were given a bespoke tour of the campus, saw the specialist laboratories used by undergraduate students taking BSc Forensic Science, and used specialist equipment to participate in a DNA extraction and analysis workshop.

Feedback from the students on these opportunities was incredibly positive.

Products:

• Produced expert witness forms that could be used in court.  Mock trial.

• Showcase procedures at open evenings.  Gave talks, demonstrations and presentations.  Showcased fingerprinting techniques and analysis.

• Created video discussing case studies.

• Created video for open days, careers and marketing the course.

All students also completed an online Open University Fingerprinting Course.

Showcase:

Students showcased their learning and the BTEC course at the DSFC Open Evening for prospective students.  They were keen to talk about the interactive elements of the course and the opportunities they had experienced to students for whom Forensic Science was an unknown course.

Students were able to create and film a short "chat show" style video which was played on the DSFC internal media channel.  This was filmed in the College's custom media studio, and directed and edited by some of the students on the media courses.

They used this opportunity to tell the viewers what they had learnt over the year, including their favourite cases that they had studied, whilst demonstrating some of the crime scene investigation techniques.

Student feedback:

Student views on their learning and the benefits of a PBL approach were gathered throughout the course via online surveys.  A focus group interview was conducted at the end of the course.  Feedback on how the approach impacted their ability to retain information, understand concepts and connect their learning to their potential future employment and the wider world can be seen below:

Connections to future studies and careers:

The students interviewed were confident that the more practical, innovative approach adopted on their BTEC Forensic Science course had helped them to make decisions about their potential future study paths and careers.  

The online survey data showed a clear progression in their perceptions of their learning.  The students completed surveys at the beginning of the course, midway, and at the end.  One of the questions they were asked was "How confident did you feel about your knowledge of forensic science before you started this course?"  Interestingly, the further they went through the course and engaged the new information, the less they felt they had been confident at the beginning the course.  Their confidence in their initial knowledge base decreases as the year goes on, potentially demonstrating that they come into the course having a good base knowledge in science from their GCSE course but do not appreciate at that point how many skills and techniques Forensic Science requires, and how much it will differ from their GCSE science courses.

The first and final questionnaire results clearly show how the students' confidence in their understanding of key skills and knowledge increased over the course.

Lasting impact on students

A former student who studied BTEC Forensic Science from 2019-2020 (see the case study on this here) spoke about the impact the course had had on her and how it had influenced her choice of future study and career:  

"What I remember most is, I think in second year we got to sort of solve a fake crime, like a teacher's car was broken in to, and we had to set up this court case. And I remember that very fondly because I was transcribing the court case, that was my role.  It was good. I thought it was laid out very well."

"I went on to do psychology [as an undergraduate degree].  I chose more forensics modules.  In college I did psychology, forensic psychology like forensic science and criminology. They're all very linked already. But I knew I wanted to like do something in that area. I knew I wanted to do at least something with crime, in that sort of area, so once I found out what criminal psychology was in forensic psychology, I knew that that's the route I wanted to go down. So definitely, I think it definitely impacted on what I did at Uni[versity]."

"A lot of college and school in general is just sitting behind a desk, whereas this really gave me hands on experience of, this is sort of like, this is what it would be like 24/7, but this is really fun. This is really exciting. This is something I could see myself doing."