High School Forensic Science Curriculum Map: A Free Scope & Sequence to Plan Your Year
The first year that I taught high school forensics, I was given pretty much no forensics curriculum. I was told that the board voted on it as the new science elective, and that another teacher in my department with more seniority didn’t want anything to do with it. So…me. I was terrified at the gigantic task ahead of me, but my true crime afficionado self was secretly thrilled to dive into a subject that I was so interested in.
But….how the heck do you fit all there is to forensics into a single school year? The answer….you don’t. One of the greatest things about forensic science is that there are endless topics to read about and so much to learn. But one of the worst things about forensic science is that there are endless topics to read about and so much to learn. See the problem? You’ve probably felt exactly the same way. The key to fighting the urge to each ALL THE FORENSICS is to have a rock-solid and concrete scope and sequence to pace your year and ensure you don’t get off track. You can download my tried, tweaked, and true scope and sequence for free at the end of this blog post - and make sure to read on to consider some of the most helpful things about creating a scope and sequence for your forensics course!
The Importance of a Clear Learning Progression
Even though you really can dive in anywhere with forensics, I still try to create a clear learning progression to increase student comprehension, lay the foundations of forensics, support student skill development, and ultimately create a cohesive curriculum. It took me a couple of years to tweak my scope to follow a logical progression, but I think I have finally figured out the perfect way to order units so that students build a foundation in basic forensics before moving into more advanced topics. My students start the year with a brief history and basic investigative techniques and move forward through the year to increasingly complex analysis and critical thinking skills. I also grouped my units into intentional, quarter-long themes to develop instruction that flowed well and was cohesive overall.
Integrating Science Disciplines
Anyone who has tried to put together a forensic science curriculum has quickly realized that the core sciences integrate throughout the discipline of forensic science. Biology, chemistry, physics, and psychology all play a role, and it can be challenging to make sure that each has its day in class. (That being said - if you’re a bio teacher thrown into forensic science a week before the school year starts, one of the simplest ways to make it manageable is to play to your strengths and focus your content on blood/serology, DNA, and genetics. Likewise if you’re a chemistry teacher, you might make toxicology, poison, drugs, and alcohol a huge part of your sequence.) Following a well-scoped sequence can make it a little easier to really diversify the disciplines that you are exposing students to - and it’s amazing to see students draw connections between scientific disciplines that they have already taken classes in individually. Those connections foster a better comprehension of science as a whole, and many students who were previous science-haters come to love it after seeing so many disciplines come together!
Time Management
Have you ever looked at the dates on the papers you’re grading and realized you’ve been talking about the same topic for two weeks in class when you only meant to stay on it for three days? Laying out a scope and sequence before you start teaching is a powerful way to make sure that you give each topic the attention it deserved, without dwelling too long in one area and missing out on another. Another bonus is that scoping your year out early makes it much easier to plan on when you need certain supplies or how your lesson planning aligns with events on your school’s calendar.
So How Do I Structure My Forensics Curriculum?
Each quarter, we work through a mega-unit or theme that all of the quarter’s units fit into. Grouping units this way sets a really nice flow for the year. This is how my quarters are currently structured.
Quarter 1: Foundations of Forensics
I spend an entire quarter on what I consider the foundations of forensics. We define forensic science, we take a look at where forensic science and the scientists involved in the development of the discipline, and we spend a large chunk of time learning about and applying crime scene investigation protocols. There are two other topics that I cover in my introductory quarter, and I would argue they are most crucial for students to understand before diving into evidence types and analysis techniques. The first is an honest look at the misapplication of forensic science. We take a look at types of forensic evidence that has been used in court and later disproven, like bite mark evidence, and we read about scientists who made mistakes in analyzing evidence. We talk about statistics, and how nothing, not even physical evidence is 100% certain - I really want my students to think critically and ask “Is this possible? Does this make sense? Is this scientifically sound?” The second is forensic science and its allowability in a court of law. We talk about Frye and Daubert and read case studies where both were applied in court. We talk about how the court requires a certain standard in order to admit evidence into a trial, and we consider the possibility that not all forensic science holds equal weight. Even though we don’t technically start evidence until the second quarter, I love to finish up with a research assignment on the validity of eyewitness testimony, because it ties in nicely with the idea that we should remain skeptical of forensic evidence that does not have rock-solid and reliable scientific proof to back it up.
Quarter 2: Evidence
Evidence is probably my favorite unit to teach, because this material is usually what my students thought of as forensics when they signed up for my course. I have students who are excited to dust their own fingerprints and love that Dexter is a blood spatter analyst - so a unit on evidence is what they expected to learn from me. We start by defining types of evidence - what is physical evidence? Circumstantial? Class versus individual evidence? Then we use this knowledge to dive into actual evidence types that might be associated with a criminal investigation. We start with trace evidence and discuss glass, paint, soil, pollen, hair, and fibers. We move into fingerprints, and then study the ever popular blood spatter (as well as blood components, serology, and passive bloodstains). We have a huge unit on DNA, and then we finish up by exploring how DNA has made a name as an exoneration tool.
Quarter 3: Death Investigations
It would be deceiving to simply call quarter 2 evidence and say that we’re done with it, because that’s not exactly true - of course topics that we cover in death investigations are evidence. The human body itself is evidence, isn’t it? But I like to parse out topics aligned with investigating a death because (1) it packages itself nicely into roughly 1 quarter worth of instruction and (2) students can see the progression from finding a body to checking off the steps of analyzing how a body itself is evidence in a criminal investigation. We consider characteristics of a human body after death like temperature, rigor mortis, and time of death. We learn about the procedures a forensic pathologist would take at autopsy, and consider the information that might be learned during that procedure. We discuss entomology and toxicology as evidence, and dive into anthropology to explore how human bones can serve as evidence in a death investigation as well.
Quarter 4: Mix & Match Going Further With Forensics
In quarter 4, I switch things up a bit. Way back at the beginning of the school year, I give a student survey that includes asking students what topics they are specifically interested in, and what they hope to get out of their forensics experience. I use student interest to drive my planning for this quarter, so it doesn’t look exactly the same year after year. There has never been a year where forensic psychology and criminal profiling wasn’t one of the most popular responses, so I always teach a unit on that in quarter 4. Other common interests are arson, digital evidence and cybercrime, the Innocence Project/wrongful convictions, and serial killers. We finish out the year applying everything we have learned by splitting into groups of 5-6 and completing a criminal investigation practical that begins with processing a crime scene and ends with a mock trial. It’s incredibly time-consuming to put on that project and requires enlisting the help of other faculty members to play the roles of witnesses and suspects, but it is the cherry on top to a fascinating year in forensics for my students.
If you need a framework for structuring your forensics science course, then this freebie is for you! Click here to download a copy of my tried and true forensics scope & sequence to make your planning simpler. Have a great year in forensics!
