FORENSIC GEOLOGY: USING SCENES FROM A POPULAR TV CRIME SERIES IN AN INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY COURSE

Scenes from the extremely popular CBS TV crime series CSI(Crime Scene Investigation) are used to introduce “forensic geoscience” to students enrolled in a liberal arts general education geology course. The writers of this series have come up with scenarios, albeit they are fictitious, that involve the identification of geologic materials relevant to various crime scenes. This author has viewed ad nauseum all the episodes from the first five years of this series and compiled all the geologically relevant scenes to enhance the course in a very interesting and entertaining way. The geologic evidence from these crime scenes serves as a basis of forming discussions about mineral, rock and soil identification. The instructor can then discuss all the possible instrumentation that can be utilized for these unequivocal identifications. The question remains, “Can a material be linked to a crime scene.”(Ruffell and McKinley, 2005). Once these scenes are viewed, most students become interested and motivated in learning the relevant course material. Discussions that ensue include a critique of those scenes that are geologically relevant.