Case Study On-Campus Forensic Labs that Provide Real-World Experience & Workforce Readiness at UNL

On-Campus Forensic Labs that Provide Real-World Experience & Workforce Readiness at UNL

Location

Lincoln, NE

Classification

4-year Public

Discipline

Forensic Science

Founded in 1869, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, serving more than 23,00 students, including 19,000 undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students.

Housed within the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR), the Forensic Science program integrates natural sciences and criminal justice to prepare students for careers in forensic investigation, analysis, and law enforcement. Focused on providing students with an effective hands-on experience that mimics real-world situations, the UNL Forensic Science Program uses Science Interactive as part of their on-campus labs to save time on lab prep and focus on what matters most: skill building, workforce readiness, and increased access.

Building Skills and Exposing Students to Real-World Experiences in an On-Campus Lab Setting

With academic programs in forensic biology, crime scene investigation, and forensic chemistry, the Forensic Science Program prepares students with the technical know-how, hands-on experience and the intellectual flexibility to adapt to virtually any criminal investigation—and apply that science knowledge and skills to interpret the evidence and arrive at sound conclusions. Notably, the program’s “Crime Scene House,” a half-acre property developed and curated by the Forensic Sciences program, provides an immersive hands-on, lab-like training environment that appeals to students seeking practical experience.

The Science Interactive labs complement this and help students build the skills needed to navigate the mock crime scene inside and out—from examining fingerprints in the bathroom, to investigating empty bullet casings near a bullet-hole riddled car, analyzing trends in the tire farm, and even uncovering plastic bones in a mock shallow grave.

The Forensics Program at UNL partnered with Science Interactive as a way to streamline its on-campus lab preparation so instructors could maximize lab time with students. In using Science Interactive’s hands-on forensic labs, instructors:

  • Provide similar and consistent lab experiences across modalities with the same labs, materials, and equipment for both on-campus lab students as well as non-majors enrolled in UNL’s online forensic lab course.
  • Create cohesive learning experiences that reinforce lecture concepts by directly aligning lectures to hands-on labs, allowing students to more clearly understand how course material applies in a real-world situation.
  • Ensure a learning environment that more deeply engages students in active learning opportunities that support development of the problem-solving and critical-thinking skills needed for workforce readiness.

The Benefits

A More Efficient Approach to Move Students from Book to Lab

With large incoming first-year classes anywhere from 80 to 100 students coupled with limited lab resources and space, and only four faculty members, the UNL Forensic Science Program needed an effective and efficient way to streamline laboratory preparations.

Using Science Interactive’s hands-on kits, instructors saved hours each day. With ready-made, pre-packaged forensic science kits, instructors don’t have to spend time sourcing materials, preparing labs for each student, or cleaning up afterward. Included as part of the course lab fee, the kits are picked up from the campus bookstore, ensuring every student has all the materials and equipment needed from day one. The semester kicks off with processing a mock crime scene at UNL’s Crime Scene House.

Without the need to prep materials for labs, instructors can prioritize their time, building a life-like lab exercise that strategically aligns with lecture and lab learning. Then, after lab time, students pack up their kits and lock them in a dedicated space, where they’ll access and store them for the duration of the semester, taking them home on the last day of class.  So not only do instructors save on prep, they save on clean up, too, which is important when lab sections are scheduled back-to-back.

“The kits include all the lab-grade materials we need. They’re safe for shipping, for student handling, and don’t contribute hazardous waste to the environment. The labs also don’t compromise on quality. They’re identical to what I’d do if I had to do it from scratch.”

Dr. Charles Murrieta, Professor of Forensics, UNL

Skill Development, Preparation & Workforce Readiness for Students

Before beginning a lab, students are required to complete a pre-lab. With lab techniques, equipment, materials and standard safety protocols covered, the pre-lab exploration component ensures students are prepared before arriving to the lab for the assigned exercises. This reduces the in-person lab time spent on introductory materials and allows for more focused, hands-on learning.

“Students have to complete the Exploration phase or pre-lab before they can participate in the Experimentation or hands-on lab components. I’ve definitely noticed that students seem more confident and prepared to conduct their labs when they do this, which is important because students have very limited time to complete the assignments,” said Dr. Charles Murrieta, Professor of Forensics at UNL.

Just as important, instructors purposefully map the labs to lecture topics each week to ensure students can connect classroom content to what they may encounter in the real world, at the Crime Scene House, or even in preparation for upper division courses. For example, a lecture module on firearms will get matched up with a lab on bullet casings within that same week, giving students enough information and opportunities to put what they have learned into practice, therefore reinforcing the concepts.

The consistent interactive learning experiences help students working across the crime scene investigation, chemistry, and DNA tracks of the program gain confidence. This preparation proves especially valuable for their capstone experience, which includes a complete Crime Scene House investigation where students apply all their acquired skills—from processing and evidence analysis to DNA profiling—while working collaboratively with their peers.

‘By the time our students are done with the program, they have the knowledge base they need as well as the practical, hands-on field experience and ability to verbally communicate their data and their information. They feel confident moving into the workforce with those skills.” –Dr. Charles Murrieta, Professor of Forensics, UNL

Improving Access and Growing Enrollment without Additional Overhead

With student interest in forensic science growing, the program has seen increased demand, expanding from one to five sections with up to 25 students in each. Without the hands-on kits, the program would have had to find the resources to bring in a team of teaching assistants or lab managers to handle the increased demand or risk canceling sections and turning students away.

With its current approach and partnership with Science Interactive, the program is able to expand the reach and impact of its courses, increase access to education in forensic sciences, and effectively prepare students for the workforce.

 

Why Use Hands-on Kits for On-Campus Labs?

  • Make lab preparation and implementation easier with pre-packaged kits, eliminating the time-consuming processes of sourcing, prep, and clean up.
  • Instructors can maximize face-to-face time with students for deeper analysis and discussion and focus on providing feedback.
  • Non-hazardous materials reduce shipping costs and minimize chemical waste.
  • Kits can facilitate multiple course sections and modalities, enabling course equivalency, program growth and flexibility.