Forensic Science: 17 Week Condensed Flex Format (High School Science Credit)

This is a full year of forensics condensed into one semester (17 weeks). This is one of the most popular forensics courses on Outschool. Mrs. Collins has had over 50 students complete the class in the first months of offering the course. So this is a very popular science credit course.

Class is normally offered in a private school setting for $599, but discounted to help homeschoolers on Outschool for $99. Please note Outschool takes 30% so the instructor makes $69 so the homeschool community is getting a certified forensics teacher for a full semester for $69-an incredible deal!

Mrs. Collins offers several options for forensics-8 week condensed, 17 weeks, semester, and year long so please look over the options to pick the best one for your family. This course is commonly used to meet high school science credit. This course falls into the same category as Biology, Anatomy, Chemistry and Environmental Science for science credit. 

Mrs. Collins also offers a middle school age forensics called Middle School Forensic Exploration. 

Forensic Studies encompasses the wide array of academic disciplines that apply specific knowledge, techniques, and technology to the investigation of crimes and to the law.  This is a year long course condensed into one semester.This course will consist of a total of 17 weeks of instruction.  So please note the material will be provided at a condensed rate.

Class Experience
This course will include a textbook in pdf online format, videos summary clips on some topics, weekly chapter reading assignments, written response activities, graphic organizers, diagrams, experiments/labs, notecards, discussion questions and demonstrations. 

Group Discussions
I have a great group of students, and we love to have discussions. Check out https://padlet.com/sciencewithcollins/forensics-shows-bl8gtss52aj84mq5 to see an example of our group discussions (this one is on our favorite forensics show. )


***Pre-requisite: It is recommended that students have knowledge of basic middle school science before beginning this course. The course is geared towards high school students, but middle school students are welcome too. Parents are asked to help the student the first week of class. This course involves independent reading and inquiry based learning at an 8th grade reading level. This may not be suitable for students with learning disabilities because of the large amount of material condensed, please reach out to the instructor to see if this class will be a good fit for your child's learning style. 

HOW A FLEX CLASS WORKS:
A flex class means that the class does not meet for live meetings, but instead the lesson will be uploaded for the student at his or her convenience via slideshows, videos or chapter pdfs to read.  Each Sunday the week's lesson will be uploaded. Students are encouraged to check in with the teacher weekly via the Outschool classroom wall and respond to weekly discussion questions, which will allow for more engagement between the teacher and learner.  After weekly lessons, students can collaborate with their peers by replying to the announcements and lesson postings on the Outschool classroom wall. This class does involve a lot of independent learning so all flex parents are asked to check the class wall once a week to make sure the child is working at a steady pace, coming the tasks in order, and not accumulating missing work. 

HOW IS THE MATERIAL PRESENTED:
This course contains 17 chapters provided, complete with chapters to read (10-15 pages), case studies, practice questions, and optional labs in each pdf chapter.  *Students will be given two chapters to read each week for a total of 10-15 pages of reading at an 8th grade reading level. Each week a new pdf chapter will be uploaded for the student to read, and then make notecards over the vocabulary at the beginning of the chapter (total of 10-12 vocabulary notecards each week). Students will upload an image or video to show cards have been completed before beginning the chapter readings. Each chapter will also have 1-2 discussion questions to answer on the class wall. These discussion questions are standards based, and tailored for the chapter. The tasks will need to be completed before moving onto the next chapter. Students are asked to complete all task on the class wall to help with comprehension, and not skip tasks. After each chapter a test link will be provided using Quizlet. 

Testing: Because this is a FLEX course, we are flexible on how the parent would like the class graded. The instructor will provide a link to take an online test over the chapter. Quizlet and Quizizz will be used for testing, and the site will grade the test too so it is a beneficial resource for families. Students will be asked to keep up with their assessment grades in their science spiral. Parents are asked to check the spiral regularly to look over grades. 

WHAT TOPICS WILL BE COVERED:
Chapter 1 Intro To Forensics
Chapter 2 Crime Scene Investigation History And Protocol
Chapter 3 Hair Sampling
Chapter 4 Fibers And Textiles
Chapter 5 Spores and Pollen
Chapter 6 Fingerprints
Chapter 7 Fingerprints And DNA
Chapter 8 Blood
Chapter 9 Drug Toxicology
Chapter 10 Handwriting Analysis
Chapter 11 Cause Of Death
Chapter 12 Soil Analysis
Chapter 13 Forensic Anthropology
Chapter 14 Glass
Chapter 15 Cast And Footprints
Chapter 16 Tool Marks
Chapter 17 Ballistics
Project: Pick a chapter you enjoyed the most, and summarize it with a visual demonstration, paper, diorama or slideshow.

Participation will include an introduction post, discussion posts, assignments, and projects in the Outschool Classroom. This allows students to process what they are learning by collaborating with peers and the teacher.  Participation in assignments allows students to practice and reinforce learning.  This also provides opportunities for the teacher to gauge student learning and provide interventions if necessary.  Private messages or classroom comments are usually responded to within 24 hours with the exception of weekends. In addition, we will use Outschool class page for students to post summaries, and discussion responses on several topics. Parents are asked to show the student how to access the Outschool Conversations tab, so the student can receive feedback from the teacher and respond to check-ins from the teacher. The Outschool Conversations tab is at the top of the home page screen for the student, but most students are unaware how to access their student inbox. 

The last week of class, students will pick a previous topic that interest them the most to further research. A list of potential research topics and experiments will be provided to pick from, if the student needs help. Throughout the class, optional additional video clips will be provided in the areas of hair analysis, fingerprinting, spore retrieval, and other specific job areas in the field of forensics. If your student is interested in a particular field, please reach out to Mrs. Collins and she will share more resources in that area to enjoy job and career research. 

Parent recommendation: This is a year long forensics course condensed into one semester but it is worth one year of science credit. It is provided in a self-paced type of format, so please discuss with the student the material will be provided on scheduled uploads each Sunday. Parents are asked to check the class wall a minimum of once a week to make sure the student is uploading work. The class wall works like a ladder on Outschool. The first task will be at the bottom and students will work their way up as they complete task. Unlike most instructors on Outschool Mrs. Collins makes sure she labels all of her post to help with comprehension. For example: Week 1 Task 1, Week 1 Task 2........this helps students move smoothly through the task independently. 
The instructor will notify you via Outschool inbox if the student is not completing work on the class wall. Please let the instructor know beforehand if you would like to be notified about missing work of if you will be checking on your own. The course involves a lot of independent reading and responses, so students are asked to complete the assignments in order, respond to each post on the class wall, and to not skip key assignments.  The instructor has the ability of tagging the student so he/she can find missing work so please ask the instructor to tag the student if needed. The student can also tag the instructor on post if questions come about so the instructor can find the question quickly and respond. 

Transcript:
Outschool provides a transcript page for completed courses at the end. If you need a personalized completion letter for your co-op or records please let me know before the class ends. Thank you.  

Please note that Mrs. Collins normally uploads assignments/chapters ahead of time, that being said; once all 17 chapters have been uploaded then refunds will not be allowed. Please let the instructor know if there is an issue but asking for a refund after the full curriculum has been provided will not be fair to the instructor. Reach out if you have issues or if your child needs help during the session. The instructor has the ability to refund, transfer or setup a private forensics class by request. Just let Mrs. Collins know what your child needs. Please remember this course is being offered on a 8 week, 12 week, 17 week and year format so if the  current format class is not working for your child because you want a faster or slower pace, check with Mrs. Collins to be moved to another format session. 

Mrs. Collins is a certified teacher and Outschool parent too. She teaches for the school system part time, so she can relate to the needs of a homeschool family and makes sure the student is provided quality science courses that are standards based. Please message her if you have any questions, would like to see a sample of the class wall, or anything else. 

If your child is looking for a fun only forensics course, please look over my class catalog. I have forensic themed courses like fingerprint science, arson units, and forensics fun. 

Note: This course involves a lot of independent reading, if your child has reading difficulties please reach out beforehand so we can discuss if this class will suit your child's needs or if another class I offer is a better fit. 

Class Session Combined: 
This class has a 3 person minimum. Since the session is a flex session students can join anytime and just begin on Week 1. Please note the teacher may combine an August 1 and August 7 session (for example), with flex; the time periods are not of importance so combining is common with flex. The reason the instructor offers various sessions in the same month is for private, charter and co-op registration. In those situations the dates of registration are needed for grants or state funding. After the registration occurs, the combining of sessions can still occur, but for school registration purposes, the dates are needed at first. Combining sessions allows students to be with others instead of being alone in a session and allows for more group discussions. It allows allows the instructor to have main sessions at a discounted rate instead of 5 sessions in one month. Visit https://support.outschool.com/en/articles/797681-outschool-classroom there the Outschool policy states, "Teachers and learners can access the section classroom indefinitely, but the ability for teachers to post and for learners to comment expires 30 days after the section has ended." If you are new to Outschool that means when the class officially ends-for example if the class is August 1-December 1, then on December 1 it will officially end. But after that date the student can still acces the class via the Outschool calendar indefinitely. So the student can log on and work for months on the assignments after it ends. On December 31, 30 days after the official end date the class wall will no longer allow the student to post and comment to friends since it is unmonitored but the classwork, assignments, and assessments will still be there for the student to work on indefinitely. If you are still not sure how flex works, ask Mrs. Collins to share a how-to video with you to help better understand and see the process to help the process go seamlessly. 



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Copy Of Email Sent To All First Time Enrollee Parents In The Class:
Welcome. Thank you for registering your child in my forensics course. Please note the following:
-The course is a flex course so we will not meet for live classes but instead the work will be on the class wall. Flex means a week of assignments are released each Sunday for the student to work on. 
-This course counts as a full year of high school credit, it is a condensed 17 week course. I do have elective fun forensics if you are looking for more fun, than educational forensic courses. Just let me know and I can share a coupon.
-I do check in with parents to get feedback and to let you know if the student has missing work. Some parent-teacher communication will need to occur via the Outschool inbox. Please be willing to communicate with me during the course.
-The first week will contain family practice assignments to get the student use to the flex format. I ask that all parents help with these practice assignments and check the class wall a minimum of once a week because of the flex condensed format. 

Please read over the full class description before our class begins,  and let me know if you have any questions. Flex classes are different from live classes, the flex teacher is paid upfront on the first day of class. So please cancel or withdraw before the class begins, if there is a conflict of time or you are no longer interested. 

I also offer a 9 week beginner middle school course too-https://outschool.com/classes/middle-school-introduction-to-forensics-xmsNoxTT?usid=Q07zlYH0&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link
and an arson investigator class-https://outschool.com/classes/forensics-study-arson-fire-science-podcast-experiment-and-video-project-4-weeks-tVx93EQo?usid=Q07zlYH0&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

This course will involve a lot of independent reading, per the class description. I am a certified forensics teacher who uses Cengage for curriculum. I use the same curriculum and resources I use in my public school forensics course. Your child will be given 10-15 pages to read (at 7-8th grade reading level), 8-10 vocabulary words to write each week, 2-3 discussion/true false group questions, and labs to try at home. The goal is to log in on Monday, and finish the 5 weekly tasks provided by Friday. The flex format allows the student to work at their own pace during the week to finish the tasks. 

Do I have a Forensics Club/Group? Yes, the link is-https://outschool.com/groups/forensics-club-hL33Ank1?sectionUid=4d5798d8-0305-4c29-9a25-f15beb31c30a&usid=Q07zlYH0&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

Please let me know if you have any questions. I am looking forward to teaching your child. Please confirm you are able to receive messages using the inbox. Thank you so much!!!

Mrs. Collins