Livingston Students Sleuth Bloody ‘Crime Scenes’ At School

LIVINGSTON, NJ — It’s not your ordinary science class. After all, it’s not every day that you have to investigate your teacher’s gruesome murder. But that’s just what students at Livingston High School were asked to do this year as part of a recurring – and utterly unique – forensic science class.

Livingston High School’s annual extravaganza allows students to put their skills to the test at fictional crime scenes using concepts they’ve learned in class throughout the year. According to tradition, the names of school staff members are used as victims, witnesses and suspects.

LHS forensic science teachers Mary Walmsley and Melissa Pelullo led the students in this year’s effort, which took place in the school’s gym. Amid a background of bleachers and atop the hardwood gym floor, the teen sleuths set up intricately detailed gory crime scenes that would make even the most dedicated Halloween enthusiast nod with approval.

Walmsley, who was selected as one of New Jersey's County Teachers of the Year in 2017, explained more about the project during a recent interview with NJTV’s “Classroom Close-up NJ.”

• Students form teams of six
• The students build a 3-D crime scene
• With LPD officers acting as judges, the students then swap “crime scenes” and try to solve them

Throughout the event, students have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of DNA sequences, fingerprints, shoeprints, hair samples, and insect and toxicology evidence, school officials said.

“Everything we do – whether its an evidence report, a police report, blood DNA, cheek cells, hair cells – has been leading up to today,” a LHS student told NJTV.

Pelullo said that kids will often come into class with an apathetic attitude towards science, but come out of the experience with a new appreciation for learning. “This class makes it a little different,” she said. “They really get into it.”

“One of the things that’s really nice about this course is that it engages students in all of the science and engineering practices found in our standards,” said Brian Carey, science supervisor for grades 7-12.

LHS Principal Mark Stern agreed. “It really helps the students to take the principles of science that they’re learning in the classroom and apply it to the real world,” he said.

Some of the program’s biggest boosters are the local police.

“We come over now three to four times throughout the year,” Livingston Police Detective Greg Drucks told NJTV. “We didn’t have this when I was in high school… I think it’s awesome.”

Learn more about the Classroom Close-up NJ series here and watch the full video below; the segment about LHS begins around the 8-minute mark.

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Photo: Livingston Public Schools (used with permission)