"the Errors Are Egregious": Assessing the Csi Effect and Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Forensic Science through a Pre- and Post-Test Investigation

Purpose: The authors attempt to capture new forensic science students' preconceptions of the field and their assessment of competencies. Methodology: The authors surveyed students at a Historically Black College and University and a Primarily White Institution on their viewership of crime and forensic TV shows and measured their competencies in a range of forensic science skills at the start and end of the semester, along with having students capture errors and evidence from an episode of CSI Las Vegas. Findings: Students who were viewers of crime series with and without prior forensics coursework over evaluated their level of preparedness at the start of the semester, often ranking themselves as moderately or well prepared in blood spatter analysis, fingerprinting, bodily fluid, and hair/ fiber collection. Research limitations: The authors relied on a convenience sample of forensic science courses, and their comparison of student learning was disrupted by COVID-19. Originality: The authors examine student concerns with working at crime scenes and reflections on their abilities to succeed in the field. The authors discuss the need for incorporating media literacy, content warnings, and emotional socialization and professional development into forensic science curricula to better equip and prepare students for careers as crime scene investigators and forensic analysts.

Teaching Forensic Entomology, Forensic Anthropology, and Haematology & Serology during the COVID-19 pandemic: Practical activities for distance learning.

As the COVID-19 pandemic upended college and university instruction throughout the world, instructors were hard-pressed to find suitable alternatives for practical activities typically carried out outside of classrooms-in laboratories, workshops, clinics, and in the field. In response to this unanticipated challenge, they relied on their ingenuity to achieve pre-pandemic goals under pandemic conditions that necessitated the shift to online teaching. The Forensic Science Undergraduate Program housed in the School of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico was not exempt from this educational upheaval but, due to its interdisciplinary nature, required creating and/or adopting a wide range of activities capable of training students to perform practical tasks associated with subject areas that span the natural and social sciences, the humanities, and the law. This report aims to describe the approaches undertaken in three subjects (Forensic Entomology, Forensic Anthropology, and Hematology & Serology) by interviewing instructors and examining their teaching materials. Also, through online surveys, students' reactions to these approaches were elicited to learn about their suitability and teaching potential. Instructor's experiences during the pandemic have proven to be a rich source of ingenious solutions, with implications well-beyond the current crisis, such as creating blended or fully online courses aimed at larger numbers of students, forensic and legal professionals, and even other instructors. The wide variety of forensic sciences offers the opportunity to innovate and improve the teaching and learning of science, particularly to the benefit of students that must combine their school tasks with professional and/or family duties.