Starting in the 2017-2018 school year, Solon High School will add Forensics to the  curriculum. Students will learn how to recognize the forensic analysis of fingerprints, drugs, blood, hair, fibers, as well as DNA.

“Each unit will focus on a different part of forensic science,” said SHS science teacher Matthew Kirk, who will teach Forensics next year. “We will focus on how different evidence is gathered and how the crime scene is investigated. I want to make sure my students learn how to accurately obtain data and information, as well as how to analyze anything that they might be given.”

Kirk said that students who are interested in pursuing Forensic science career-wise would especially benefit from the class. Students will be able to study principles of Forensics as well as pathology and toxicology, how scientists examine a dead body and  what kinds of drugs affect the system and how they can be measured.

“I think it will give students a chance to apply the knowledge of science that they learned in high school,” Kirk said. “A lot of it will be taking evidence and seeing how we can use that in the field of Forensics and many of the activities will try to mimic everything that you could be asked to do on the job.”

Additionally, many students have decided to take Forensics as a way to glance into their futures and question if this is path that they want to go down in their future college plans or careers.

SHS junior Kuljit Kaur is interested in majoring or minoring in Crime Investigation in the near future and has decided to take Forensics in the next school year to help  affirm her ideas. “I’m hoping to get some experience working with lab samples and in the overall crime field,”  Kaur said. “This class would really clear up my doubts for the future. I think it will be fun and exciting to be able to try out the new ideas that this course has to offer.”

SHS junior Gabrielle Bais is also planning to take Forensics next year and  has described how excited she is for this new class.

“I have been looking for different career paths, since I’m a junior in highschool, so when I realized SHS was offering Forensics, I became very excited and decided to take the class that might help me decide whether I really am interested in this subject for my future.”

To be able to take the class, the only requirement is that students must have taken Biology and Chemistry in previous years, as well as having performed at a decent level in both of those classes, meaning a recommendation from the student’s current science teacher. Kirk, the sole Forensics teacher next year, testifies that a love for science will carry students a long way in his new class. So far, the school has over 90 students signed up to take the class next year, which could mean four or five different classes per day for Kirk.
“There is still so much work to do before I can actually be excited about this class,” Kirk said. “But once everything is finished and the syllabus is finally worked out, I will be very happy to teach students all I can about Forensic science.”