Overview
National Forensic Science Week (September 18-22, 2023) recognizes the contribution that forensic science makes to the criminal justice system. It is an opportunity to celebrate academic programs, forensic professionals, and scientific research in the various forensic disciplines.
Throughout the week, the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCOE) will be engaging with the community to highlight the impact that forensic science has in the world and provide fun and informative resources!
This year, the FTCOE hosted a Forensic Science Graduate Research Symposium and Poster Session and another exciting Murder Mystery case. Additionally, the FTCOE provided a wide range of stress relief activities and educational resources, including forensic science themed crossword and word search puzzles, and printable teacher guides for a simple strawberry DNA extraction and fingerprinting activities.
We hope to engage forensic professionals from all disciplines and all stages of their careers, including the forensic scientists of the future. Subscribe to the FTCOE Newsletter and follow @ForensicCOE on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to stay up to date on news and events. Stay tuned for everything that the FTCOE has to offer for this year's National Forensic Science Week!
Murder Mystery Event
Clues released all week long!
For this year’s murder mystery, we will be reopening a cold case with information from the original casefile and new information from the follow-up investigation released daily. Follow along and test your sleuthing skills to see if you can unravel the mystery! Test your sleuthing skills and enter your guesses in a mystery-related questionnaire! Then, check the FTCOE website on Monday, September 25 for the case resolution to see how detectives closed the case!
Graduate Research Symposium & Poster Session
This event originally occurred on Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Duration: 2.5 hours
This year, the FTCOE combined the Graduate Research Symposium and the National Forensic Science Week FTCOE Student Research Poster Session into a single event – the 2023 Graduate Research Symposium and Poster Session! View the archived line-up of presentations and a full poster gallery of student research!
Interview Montage
In the past, the FTCOE has released written interviews with forensic practitioners in various stages of their career and working in various forensic disciplines. This year, we released a video comprised of multiple interviews with forensic practitioners from seasoned subject matter experts to young professionals early in their career. These interviews provide helpful tips for anyone looking for ways to advance or adapt their career at any stage. Check out the montage video for words of wisdom, forensic fun facts, and hopes for the future of forensic science from those actively engaged in the community.
Teacher How-To Guides
This year for National Forensic Science Week, the FTCOE published educational resources for teachers to download, print, and complete with students to learn some of the basic principles of forensic science! Guides include a strawberry DNA extraction and fingerprinting activities.
Stress Relief Activities
Daily Puzzles
The FTCOE released a series of crossword and wordsearch puzzles with fun forensic science themes that incorporate some terminology trivia and stress relieving activities for all ages. Find the Terms wordsearches offer a simple, fun activity for all ages while Test Your Knowledge crosswords incorporate forensic science terminology trivia to challenge or entertain forensic scientists in training and in the workforce.
Fingerprint Game
Challenge your short-term memory and attention to detail with variations of this fingerprint game. Match 20 pairs of identical fingerprints or challenge yourself to identify the source of 20 latent prints to their corresponding reference prints!
Spot the Differences Challenge
Attention to detail is an essential skill across forensic disciplines. Test your attention to detail by checking out our fun forensic laboratory illustration. Can you spot the differences between the two images? How many differences can you find?
