Imagine this – learning high school biology through crime-scene analysis.
Colleen Dunning used this approach to lead a class at Animas High School through a six-week segment of sophomore biology.
“The major focus was on the chemical structure of DNA,” Dunning said Tuesday. “We used kits to build an understanding of the structure through three lab activities. Just like the professionals, we established a DNA fingerprint.”
Kits come from commercial firms that supply educators with teaching props ranging from animals for dissection to the skulls that Dunning used in her crime-scene class.
During the six weeks, students analyzed three crime scenes – conveniently located on the AHS campus.
There was a cadaver covered with maggots found by a dumpster; skeletal remains, the skull of which Dunning perforated with a single shot from a .22-caliber firearm to simulate an execution; and a cadaver with a gunshot wound that made it appear to be a suicide but which turned out to be murder.
In relation to the third case, students learned blood-splatter analysis to figure out the position of the person who fired the shot and the trajectory of the bullet.
At the same time, students read a published FBI report about mitochondrial (maternally inherited) DNA.
“I like them to read published professional work instead of texts,” Dunning said.
An unexpected encounter was the classroom visit of person who spent 25 years in a California prison before being exonerated of murder by DNA analysis.
The crime-scene analysis also looked at blood.
“We learned about the role of blood in the body and how blood-typing is done,” Dunning said. “We also studied how the immune system works.”
Students learned how to take fingerprints, studied toxicology reports and learned how a coroner does an autopsy.
Now, in the next four weeks before the holiday break, students will study human evolution.
They will approach the field from the point of hominid skulls, replicas but authentic-sized units that will cover hominids from 1.8 million years ago to Homo sapiens.
Come the new year, the first half of the semester will cover anatomy and physiology and the second half, ecology through apiary science, including colony collapse. There will be a honeybee hive on campus to hone beekeeping skills.
daler@durangoherald.com
