Katherine Ezabor, a 16-year-old senior, held a laminated fuchsia strip representing DNA as she prepared to place it onto her classroom’s white board during a simulation in Los Altos High School’s new forensics class.
“We’re duplicating the DNA,” Ezabor said.
She is one of 84 juniors and seniors who signed up for the first forensics course ever offered at the high school. The district had planned to teach one class, but helped by the popularity of the CBS television show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” the course expanded to three sections.
Recently the students, mostly seniors, analyzed their own fingerprints with a “black plate” and a “fume hood.” They’re learning how to process a crime scene, said teacher Lisa Bolton. The kids will gather DNA samples, duplicate them so they have enough to use in the lab, then analyze them to link the samples with a suspect, she said.
“It’s a mix between all my favorite sciences — genetics, physics, chemistry and biology. It just incorporates it all. It puts everything into a practical use instead of just a textbook use,” said Spencer Huang, a 17-year-old senior.
Besides “DNA typing,” students learn photography, note-taking and packing evidence.
“People have used DNA typing to reunite a child to a parent,” Bolton told her class. DNA typing has been used in mass disasters including 9/11, where scientists looked at bone fragments to determine who was in the tower. She said the method was also used during the investigation of former President Bill Clinton’s involvement with Monica Lewinsky and in the capture of Saddam Hussein to determine if the individual captured was the authentic Hussein.
The course is UC-approved, according Bolton, who was instrumental in launching it. Over the summer she worked with Applied Biosystems, where she got first-hand experience with DNA testing. She received a $22,000 grant to help pay for the course.
For the final exam, Bolton said, she’s going to bury some bones, scatter bullet casings and lay out a blood-stained fabric which students will pick apart and analyze.
It’s interesting. It’s different,” Ezabor said.
E-mail Susan Hong at shong@mv-voice.com
