Lectures and workshops

Forrest 2010

At the Forrest 2010 I presented two areas of research and development.

Learning from the evidence - Moving from paper to web, pdf and e-books reporting on a collaboration between John Cassella, Carole McCartney and myself.

and

Digital Infrared Photography: Principles and practice.

Learning from the evidence

Bryson, D. Cassella, J. and McCartney, C. (2010) Learning from the evidence – Moving from paper to web, pdf and e-books. FORREST Conference, 29 - 30 June, Coventry University, Coventry.

Professor John Cassella,
Department of Forensic and Crime Science, Faculty of Sciences, Staffordshire University, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dr Carole McCartney,
School of Law, University of Leeds and Marie Curie Fellow, Centre for Forensic Excellence, Bond University, Australia. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The HEA Physical Sciences Centre has been successful in bidding for the HEFCE/JISC/Academy Open Educational Resources (OER) programme, with the goal of creating a variety of learning resources freely available, easily discovered and routinely re-used by both educators and learners. 'Skills for Scientists' is the collective title for physical sciences resources made available through this programme.
This paper reports upon one such resource: the development of a novel teaching and learning ‘packet’ for law students, to support their handling of forensic evidence within the context of a case report at the pre-trial stage. Students are required to assimilate a range of materials and then complete a pre-trial disclosure for the prosecution in addition to a post-test questionnaire.

The written statements, crime scene photographs etc. were originally converted to a series of web pages. In an attempt to create a more familiar format for students and prompt full engagement with the learning packet, the evidence was re-formatted and presented as an electronic series of pages using InDesign then exported as a portable document format (pdf) which could be viewed on screen or printed out and as an embedded Flash file (swf) for the Web.

Such development of teaching and learning materials has progressed over time but still a key feature is ‘the page’ whether it be student’s notes, handouts, in a journal or even the traditional textbook. It has been possible for some time to make interactive documents but some of the questions still to be considered and addressed as part of this project and wider pedagogic inquiry are:
“How do these support teaching and learning?”
“What do students like and dislike about this format?”
“What is possible now?” and
“What are the indications for the future of interactive pdfs and e-books in Forensic Science and the Law?”

To view presentation go to Learning from the evidence web page to download the swf file click here swf file format 14Mb

Digital Infrared Photography: Principles and practice

Infrared photography has been possible since the development of silver halide emulsions with extended sensitivity in the early 1900s. Forensic Science has always used infrared techniques but now with digital infrared cameras techniques that required an expert photographer, with technical as well as darkroom skills, can become part of every day practice.

Digital cameras all contain light sensitive chips that can see not only visible light but into the infrared and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum. Indeed, manufacturers have to include filters to deliberately limit cameras to the visible spectrum. So either by buying a specialized IR/UV camera or converting a standard camera and using a range of filters we can record both control images (Visible spectrum), infrared and ultraviolet.

This paper looks at the cameras, lenses, lighting and filter combinations needed for infrared photography and its practical application in photographing the skin. This has forensic and medical applications; here we will be looking at recent work on the photography of cover-up tattoos to see whether the underlying tattoos can be recorded using infrared light. This is examining not only; tattoos, tattoos pigments, styles and depth, but also the optical characteristics of human skin.

As the techniques are not dependent on black and white development processes we can bring this technique into regular use in the classroom for Forensic Photography modules, Independent Studies or further research at Masters or PhD level as well as for use in law enforcement.

Effect of using infrared on black dye of T-Shirt Left - control colour record, Right - infrared record also showing blood below the lettering visible using infrared not with normal colour control.

Download PowerPoint presentation or Keynote presentation here

FORREST Conference, 29 - 30 June 2010, Coventry University, Coventry.

The role of photography in the learning, teaching and assessment of human identification

Abstract

Photography has an important role to play in Forensic Science for both staff and students not just for crime scene investigations but also to support learning, teaching and assessment. In the 3^rd year module 'Techniques in Human Identification' we have increasingly used photography to support learning through the creation of learning objects, its use in class as part of assessment as students create portfolios of practical work and the addition of quality images rather than scans to teaching presentations, handouts and laboratory guides.

The advantages to using photography include:

Students can photograph bones, skeletons, parts of bones they want to help with bone identification, ageing, sexing and metric analysis using the cameras provided, their own cameras or mobile phones.
Helps those students are not good at illustrating bones, so photographs can printed out and then labelled with reference to an anatomy text.
Photographs taken can become part of a collection of images available in an online gallery or database. Since starting to teach this module we have taken photographs of students ears now we have a collection of over 140 pairs which can be used for more detailed analysis.
Appreciation of human variation; photographs are taken from a range of anatomical material so variations can be clearly demonstrated. Many anatomy texts only show one rather than multiple examples.
The creation of handouts and laboratory guides to techniques with photographs rather than diagrams, or just text, adds another level of sophistication as finished products.

Photographs have helped us overcome the limited quantity of skeletal material available for examination. The next stage is to try and obtain access to photograph other skeletal collections so we can broaden the range of material our students can view for example characteristic features of different racial types and pathological conditions.

PowerPoint presentation 66Mb file

Lightbox view of lecture slides

Link to bone gallery http://www.cladonia.co.uk/bones

Link to bone terminology flash learning object

Other recent lectures

See Fingerprint Society Seminar

Fingerprint Society Seminar

These handouts were produced for the Fingerprint Society’s Increasing Detections through Identification Technology CPD Seminar/Workshop on Human Identification, June 11th 2009, Derbyshire Constabulary Headquarters.