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News and Information about UF Forensic Science
What I did this summer
UF teaches CSI summer camp at local elementary school
August 2006 (pdf version)
(Photo Caption: Amy Kinsey, a forensic investigator with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, shows Oak Hall Students the tools from her crime scene kit and explains how they are used.)
As the school year swings into action for students at Oak Hall School, some just might add a new twist to the traditional “what I did this summer” essay. Forget writing about the beach. They’re more likely to highlight tales of buried meat and blood spatter patterns, at least if they report on the forensic field trip they took in July.
Donna Wielbo, Ph.D., an associate professor in the College of Pharmacy who teaches UF’s forensic DNA and Serology master’s program, and David Khey, a UF doctoral candidate in criminology, teamed up to teach a weeklong crime scene investigation summer camp for children ages 10 to 12.
Jeff Malloy, upper school dean at Oak Hall School in Gainesville, contacted UF last year in search of faculty who might help develop a new science-related summer experience.
“Oak Hall School works hard to establish cooperative relationships with agencies like the University of Florida so that we can offer unique, quality summer programs for kids,” Malloy said.
Wielbo and Khey brought in a variety of speakers, including an FBI agent, a local law enforcement officer and a magician who showed the students how pickpockets steal. Activities for the week included forensic chemistry tests to identify unknown substances, examining buried meat for insects and decay, learning about the human skeleton and understanding what blood spatter patterns mean to investigators.
Amy Kinsey, a forensic investigator with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, emphasized to the students that real-life crime scene investigation is quite different from – and not as glamorous as – what they see on television. A 2003 graduate of the UF forensic master’s program in toxicology, Kinsey showed the students her crime scene tool kit and led them in a fingerprint examination activity.
Khey, also a graduate of the UF forensic program in drug chemistry, taught an introductory CSI camp at Oak Hall last year that this year’s camp expanded on.
(Photo Caption:)
Amy Kinsey, a forensic investigator with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, shows Oak Hall Students the tools from her crime scene kit and explains how they are used.