A bare bones look at crime scene investigation

A team of 23 Criminal Justice undergrads from California State University spent the afternoon at BCIT Burnaby Campus combing through an extensive crime scene, collecting evidence, and searching for the missing pieces to solve the crime.

The scene consisted of a crashed vehicle, dead body, and skeletal remains which may have looked real, but the faux crime-scene was all a part of the kick-off to the third annual, two-week field school, hosted by the Forensic Science and Technology department

“The students come up here to get a Canadian perspective on forensic science,” comments Dean Hildebrand, Associate Dean of Forensic Science and Technology. “We take them through a mock-crime scene where they search for and collect evidence, then they process the evidence in the lab, and we finish the two-weeks with them on the stand at a mock trial to present their evidence.”

The scene takes on elements that they might find on the job, and for these students this is the first time they are in the field suited up and playing the part.

“The field school follows the applied-learning model at BCIT, the students receive the hands on learning while exploring all areas of the field including cyber crime, crime scene analysis, and forensic biology/chemistry,” comments Dean.

“We have to learn something beyond our borders, we have to have a global perspective and prepare our students to have a comparative understanding of different processing techniques at the crime scene and forensic analysis methods in the lab,” says Professor John Wang, California States Long Beach, who has taken his students to BCIT for the third year now to take part in the field school.

Learn more about the various areas to study within Forensic Science at BCIT.

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