Forensic Science Academy Club Meeting

The Forensic Science Academy Club held a meeting between 8:00AM-3:00PM on both Saturday and Sunday. In this week of FSAClub we teamed up in coming up with teaching methods in teaching the human skeletal anatomy in a long-term memory manner.

This is the perfect time to do it since I'm going to execute my 20 minute presentation. Before we begin we wanted to focus the room into thinking on what the best way is to help one in understanding the  human skeleton. It is rather important for learning about human and nonhman primate anatomy to compare and contrast their fundamental values. Some of the defining characteristics for humans include our

height and our skeletal adaptations for bipedalism By presenting an outline of an adult human standing 187 ½ cm tall (or 6’2”) and compare it with that of modern humans average a height of 162 centimeters (or 5’3”) tall for female, and 175 centimeters (5’7”) tall for males. 

Some rather simple ideas of doing this included: discussing the functions of the bones - for example, legs are for walking, hands are for grasping, ribs are for protecting organs. Labeling all the bones, just kidding! This would be quite the challenge for someone who doesn't even know higher-level thinking. Coming up with activities to describe how does a skeleton work is rather difficult so bringing in a plastic disarticulated skeleton that is puzzle-like can allow students to think cooperatively and build the exoskeleton of a human. As this is being done, there should be a discussion on paired bones, anatomical position, right versus left, and how joints work.

Using Appendix 1 in Bass' Human Osteology: A Laboratory and Field Manual, teach some basic anatomical terms that someone would use in a criminal investigation court case testimony. Using the categorical bone structures found in the lateral/medial, superior/inferior, anterior/posterior, work accordingly.

Categories: condyle, boss, and malleolus are all large, rounded processes. Basically, solicit their help in making up acronyms to learn bones.

Using a plastic disarticulated skeleton , create a forensic murder mystery by using markers stickers/colored tape on the skeleton to stand for things like cut marks, projectile trauma from a bullet, and broken bones.

After that has been completed, state the result and professional terminology: a person was attacked from the front , then suffered blunt force trauma to the head, was dismembered, and the evidence that led you to that particular decision. I was also unaware of the fact that you can get some bones from your local butcher. It's pretty easy (and often free) to get bones from non-choice cuts of meat - several FSAClub members got free pig joints and skulls just by asking. Very enlightened week!