When most students think of the “ordinary” classes that high schools offer they often think of common core classes such as math, science and English. In high school, students are offered a wide variety of science classes like biology, chemistry and physics. A lot of students don’t know about some special science classes that we offer here at GP like Forensic Science.

Forensic Science is a semester long course that prepares students to become knowledgeable in utilizing scientific analysis for crime scene investigation. The class integrates the scientific principles of Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The main topics covered in the class are forensic protocol and lab work that covers toxicology (poisons and drugs), serology (blood and body fluids), odontology (teeth), DNA fingerprinting, hair and fiber analysis, fingerprinting, and document analysis. Taking Forensic Science can be a helpful class if you are interested in becoming a biomedical scientist, detective, scientific laboratory technician or toxicologist.

Mr. Hill has taught this class for four years and plans to continue teaching it for many more years. “Mrs. Caraballo first taught this class. She was very passionate about the topic because her dad was killed in the land of duty in a crime scene. Most of the curriculum I teach comes from Mrs. Caraballo herself. I do my best to satisfy Mrs. Caraballo and make sure it is a good class. In forensics, we take biology and physics and apply it to hands on science. It is a ton of fun,” Mr. Hill said.

“I absolutely love Mr. Hill. The class is very interesting and it`s fun being able to know all the details and work that go into solving a crime scene. My favorite part about this class is the labs that we do. Once we dropped fake blood from the third floor all the way down to the first floor. We analyzed how blood looks after it drops and it made a really cool sound,” Freja Jorgensen said.

Students say the class is pretty practical too.

“It is really cool how we apply biology to forensic analysis. Now when I watch the news, I understand all the details involved when solving a crime scene,” Evan Yip said.

This class is guaranteed to spark to an interest in all things science.