M. J. Clark a n d J. F. Keegel Jersey City State College Jersey City. New Jersey 07305
Chemistry in the Crime Lab A forensic science course
One of the orohlems facing many chemistry faculties is the reluctance o i nonscience &den& to enroll in chemistry courses. "Chemistry in the Crime Lab," introduced into our curriculum in ~ u n e 1974, , has attracted large numbers of students with liberal arts majors outside of the sciences. In addition, the course attracted police and fire officers pursuing baccalaureate and associate degrees in the Law Enforcement Education Program (L.E.E.P.). In fact, enrollment of the latter has been consistently so high that we have instituted a dual time-track,program to accommodate officers on shift duty. The word "crime" with all its connotations in our present society excites tremendous interest so recruiting students for this course was an easv task but maintaining.student interest required careful preparation on the part of the instructor. Early on, we made the decision that there should be no pressure on the instructor to cover the list of topics generally regarded as suitable for a general studies chemistry course. Instead, topics were chosen to fit into the main theme of crime investigation and as much theory and laboratory experience was provided as seemed relevant and digestible to the students a t that point. Nevertheless, in order to keep the course from being merely a superficial and popularized presentation, the instructor continually sought ways to introduce basic chemical principles in an integrated manner. Maintaining this integration of chemical and forensic material presented the chief challenge of teaching this course. It is obvious that the quality of the response to this challenge calls to a great extent for a unique contribution from each instructor involved hut ourattempts to resolve this problem may he helpful to others olannine a course of this tvoe. students spent three h&s in class each week to receive three general studies credits for the course. The three class hourskere distributed in a 1-hr and a 2-hr session with the longer period utilized for laboratory work in alternate weeks. Thus, this schedule allowed for seven 2-hr lahoratory sessions throughout the semester. After a 2-hr introductory lecture on the history and scope of forensic science, class time was divided among three major topics: (1)the crime scene and collection of evidence, (2) methods of analysis of physical evidence collected during the investigation, and (3) methods of analysis of poisons and drugs of abuse. While lectures and laboratories provided the basic format, considerable time and planning was spent in providing meaningful demonstrations, arranging a visit to a state lahoratory, collecting visual aids, and orovidine.. ,. guest lecturers from police units. AU of this was d m e in order to rnainwir~the studrnr'.; motivat~onalinterest and at n hizh le\d. An excellent k x t "Crin~inalistics--'l'he
