Instead of watching hours upon hours of criminal investigation programs at home, students enrolled in the new forensic science course at Conwell-Egan Catholic High School in Fairless Hills will be immersed in solving simulated crimes at school.
Conwell-Egan has added to its 2005-’06 syllabus a problem-solving-based introduction to the world of criminal investigation made popular by recent television shows such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
“When CSI and all of that type of forensics TV shows came on, I got as excited as anybody,” said Rita Tomlinson, Conwell-Egan’s science department chair and the instructor of the new forensic science/bioethics course for juniors and seniors.
“But, sometimes I would see that it wasn’t [as] simple as the show makes it look,” she said.
In recent years, the subject of forensic science has entered her biology classroom discussions; thus, the concept that Conwell-Egan offer such a course emerged.
“I love biology,” Tomlinson said, adding, “I’ve always liked a challenge.”
It’s been a productive summer for Tomlinson, as she has been preparing props for the class’ simulated crime scenes. Most recently, she applied layers of paint to boards for a future lesson on paint chip analysis.
“I’ll present it as if it was a crime scene, that chips were found imbedded in a body, and now they have five suspects and [have] to identify which [fictitious] home this might have come from.”
She’s also devised fingerprinting laboratories.
Although it is common knowledge that everybody has different fingerprints, Tomlinson wants her students to see, microscopically, how fingerprints differ. Handwriting analysis is also on the course docket.
The bioethics portion of the course will examine current medical and technology ethical issues, including stem-cell research, gene therapy and the human genome project.
“I want them to be informed citizens” and not expect that everything is the way it is depicted on television, Tomlinson said of her students.
She also wants to further pique students’ interest in science — “even if they don’t become forensic scientists — to realize that problem-solving is fun.”
Such lessons are, in essence, life lessons, she said. “Every day, you have to make decisions and they have to be informed decisions.”
Regarding the issues addressed in the bioethics portion of the class — those related to recent advances in science in particular — Tomlinson assures that everything she presents will be “in accord with Catholic teaching. ... I want to be sure they understand [the answer to the question], ‘Where does the Church stand on this?’”
Tomlinson, [formerly Dougherty], graduated from St. Michael the Archangel School in Levittown in 1957 and is a 1961 alumna of Bishop Egan High School for Girls in Levittown.
She received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Holy Family College in Philadelphia. Located in Lower Bucks County, Conwell-Egan Catholic High School is a coeducational secondary school formed in 1993 through the merger of Bishop Conwell High School for Girls in Levittown and Bishop Egan High School for Boys in Fairless Hills.
For more information, call Conwell-Egan Catholic High School at (215) 945-6200 or check out the Web site www.conwell-egan.org.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org