A group of high school students spent part of their winter break doing what many only see on crime shows – analyzing evidence and learning how science solves cases. KUAM went along for the experience, inside a forensic science camp hosted by the Guam Police Department.
Forensics look a little different at the Guam Police Crime Lab this week– the investigators are high school students. GPD invited students behind the scenes for a Forensic Science Camp, designed to show how science plays a key role in criminal investigations. One mentor is James Aevermann, a former teacher turned criminalist with the Forensic Science Bureau.
"It focuses on what we do here at the lab, which includes crime scene processing, crime scene response as well as the sciences like drug analysis, biological analysis, firearm analysis and latent fingerprint development," he explained.
A classroom of teens got hands-on experience, from studying mock crime scenes to learning how DNA evidence is collected and analyzed. Father Duenas Memorial School junior Elijah Blas said, "There’s firearms, there’s drugs and there’s DNA and serology, which is like bodily fluids. So we’re learning a lot about how they go through the crime scene and they collect the evidence, to know which gun fired that and is this actually blood and whose blood it is."
For many students, the camp lines up perfectly with their career goals. Bree Krivenko, a Guam High freshman, told KUAM News, "So far, my favorite thing probably is the blood. I’m trying to pursue a career in forensic psychology. But I think blood is another thing or crime scene investigation, because I like how interactive it is."
And Zoiejean Techaira, a junior at GW, shared, "I feel like it helps me because I get to see and learn more about forensics and really see if this is the career I want to pursue."
For others, the camp helped connect school subjects to real-life impact. Blas said, "It taught me a lot about different science fields...it’s really intriguing how different people think and stuff. But of course, a lot of the biology that we’re going through helps me understand a lot more about pathology, which is what I want to pursue."
Exposing students early helps them understand both the science and the responsibility that comes with the job, as Aevermann said, "The work that we do is not just to solve the crimes, it’s also to exonerate people. The stuff we find, while we do work for GPD, we’re not just doing the investigations that will pin something on a suspect. We also do work that might exonerate a suspect...so we’re really working for the evidence."
Aevermann hopes the camp inspires students to pursue a career with the Guam Police Department or in the forensic sciences.