Skip To Main Content

Mount Vernon STEAM Academy students begin crime scene project in Principles of Biomedical Science

Mount Vernon STEAM Academy students begin crime scene project in Principles of Biomedical Science

Students in Principles of Biomedical Science at Mount Vernon STEAM Academy are embarking on a semester-long project where they are examining the scene of a fictional death to learn about different biomedical concepts. This course, taught by T.J. Pufahl, is a Project Lead the Way course, which are specially designed STEM classes with hands-on, real-world learning experiences.

The project starts with a fictional character found dead in a science lab. Students begin examining the crime scenes and find out medically how she died. As they learn about different medical principles, they utilize those to develop theories about the crime scene. Some of the concepts they will learn about are hair follicles, fingerprints and testing DNA.

“It’s their job as forensic scientists to biomedically figure out how she died,” said Mr. Pufahl. “So, we analyze blood spatter evidence; we learn about blood typing, fingerprints, DNA evidence, hair samples — amongst a number of other various pieces of evidence. We learn about those things in depth using high-tech, college-level equipment. Then we apply that to the crime scene and try to figure out medically how she died. She dies differently in every single course, every single year.”

The crime scene was showcased at STEAM’s meet-and-greet night on Thursday, September 27, 2024.

Teacher around lab equipment pointing out things.
Students standing around lab equipment and taking notes.
Students kneeling and viewing dead body.


 

No post to display.