Developing Objective Communications for Crime Scene Investigation

Objective:

• To provide students with an understanding of the importance of clear, non-ambiguous communication.
• To provide students with opportunities to improve their written communication skills.
• To provide students with opportunities to reflect upon the relevance of communication skills to their own subject area.

Introduction:

A module in ‘Crime Scene Investigation’ is run as part of the Forensic Science undergraduate degree programme at Glyndwr University. For students of this course, and in particular this module, the ability to communicate clearly and effectively is essential.

With many students progressing upon graduation into careers within forensic science and the police, they will find frequent occasions on which they must precisely convey information to a wide variety of colleagues, partners and stakeholders, members of the public and otherwise. On each occasion a misunderstanding could lead to serious consequences, and on occasion their verbal and written communication itself will be held up to forensic scrutiny, in the court room or otherwise.

As such, students’ skills in communication are developed and nurtured throughout their academic study.

This simple activity introduced a group of approximately 20 first year students to the importance of non-ambiguous written communications, with particular respect to recording evidence. It formed the first 45 minutes of a 3-hour seminar session.

(The idea for the activity was first described to me by Anna Davenport, senior lecturer in Forensic Studies at the University of Winchester).

Activity:

Part One: ‘Find Your Carrot’ Activity (20 minutes)

• Each student was provided with a carrot, and a piece of paper.
• Students were instructed to write a written description of the carrot they had been presented with.
• All carrots were then collected and placed on a desk in the centre on the classroom, and students were told to use their written descriptions to retrieve their carrot (Most students found this extremely difficult / impossible, due to an insufficient description on their paper).
• As a group, students discussed why they found the challenge hard to complete.
• The activity was repeated, and this time, due to more diligent description writing, students retrieved their carrots with more ease.
• Carrots were once again collected in, and students were instructed to swap their written description with another member of the class.
• They were then asked to retrieve the carrot relating to that description (Again, students found this to be challenging, due to written descriptions having been developed without another reader in mind)
• As a group, students discussed why the challenge was hard to complete.
• Finally, two volunteers were selected. One volunteer was instructed to momentarily leave the class, and a second, to select a carrot, and prepare a description of it, with the help of the group.
• Returning to the classroom, the first volunteer then followed this description to select the correct carrot.

Part Two: Group Discussion (5 minutes)

• The group fed back their experience of the activity. Why it had proven challenging, how they had overcome the challenges, and how the challenge may relate to crime scene investigation.

Part Three: Labelling Evidence (20 minutes)

• Students looked at the labels completed when recording evidence retrieved at a crime scene, and the information required to be recorded on any given piece of collected evidence.
• They discussed the importance of written descriptions on evidence labels, and completed labels for a selection of examples.

Impact:

The activity served as a light-hearted introduction to an important topic.

It supported students in their future studies and practical work, including when collecting evidence in mock crime scene scenarios, and in a variety of assessed and formative assessments.

Learner outcome:

Learners found the activity novel and enjoyable and remained engaged throughout its duration. It served as a valuable introduction to the importance of clear written and verbal communication, and learning was reflected through students work and communications thereafter.

Resources:

• Enough carrots to go around, or another collection of suitably similar objects.
• Pens and paper.

References:

• Glyndŵr University - Forensic Science. 2015. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.glyndwr.ac.uk/en/Undergraduatecourses/ForensicScience/. [Accessed 18 August 2015].