By Yamilex Garcia and Omar Quintana
On Wednesday and Thursday, February 10 and 11, Pueblo’s forensic class, taught by Ms. Elaine Straub, experienced their third live crime scene; students were required to examine a car accident and apply the skills they have learned in class throughout this school year.
Straub said that this particular crime scene will test her students’ critical thinking skills.
“This is a higher caliber crime scene than the previous scenarios this school year,” Straub said. “There will be a few more this school year that will further challenge students’ critical thinking skills.”
Students were required to collect evidence and examine their discoveries, including taking photographs, taking measurements and fingerprinting.
Senior Rocio Rodriguez said, “Taking part in a simulated crime scene is so much better than reading out of a textbook. We students are able to actually see what happened and use critical thinking skills and making inferences from the clues. It makes so much more sense and practical to let us figure things out for ourselves.”
Straub added that Ms. Marie Little, who teaches auto, and her students helped stage this simulated crime scene. Several other teachers used this location for their own curriculum, including Ms. Emma Tarazon, whose students took various pictures in a variety of light settings, and Mr. Rana Medhi, who took his creative writing students to the scene so that they could write about a story about their observations.
“On a gorgeous day like today, students really like being out of the classroom and writing stories,” said senior Mia Contreras. “More teachers should get their students outdoors and take advantage of all that our school offers.”
Mr. Ernie Somoza’s CMT (Communications Media Technology) freshmen students used the drone to shoot an aerial of simulated crime scene. (Video below) Sophomore Hector Valenzuela and freshman Andrew Romero controlled the drone, and sophomore Victor Llanos edited the video.