Chemistry 379
Advanced Forensics Chemistry
Spring 2015
Instructor: Dr. Renee Beeton
Office: Porter Hall, Room 303
Office Hours: M,W 9:00-11:00, R 2:00-3:00
Office Number: 587-7383
Email: rbeeton@adams.edu
Course Description
Chemistry 379 is designed to introduce the student to a series of topics related forensics
chemistry. In this course, chemistry principles that have been learned in other chemistry
courses will be applied to forensics science. The basic principles of criminology will be discussed
along with the theory and instrumental techniques involved in drug, glass, arson, gunshot residue,
and DNA analysis. Many of these techniques will be practiced in the accompanying laboratory
portion of the course.
Student Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
 describe how chemistry is applied to solving crimes
 describe the principles of chemistry related to forensics investigations of drugs,
glass, gunshot residue, and arson accelerants
 describe instrumentation used in forensics analysis and the principles behind their
function
 describe and demonstrate pertinent laboratory and scientific reasoning skills
associated with forensics investigations
 be able to use a polarizing light microscope for glass, drug, and arson analysis
Textbooks
Forensic Chemistry, 2nd Ed. by Suzanne Bell
ISBN:
The laboratory manual is available with the book at www.chemplace.com or as hand-outs from the
instructor.
Assignments, Evaluation Procedures, and Grading Policy:
1. Attendance and participation at all class meetings is expected.
2. Homework: There will be a variety of homework activities in this class, such as end-of the
chapter problems, readings and reflections, and/or watching videos/TV programs.
3. Project: There will a project due at the end of the semester in which a crime scenario will
be fabricated along with police reports and analysis to solve the crime. These crime
scenarios will potentially be used in the CHEM 103 Introduction to Forensics Chemistry
class. More details are on the last page of the syllabus
4. Examinations: Two hour long exams will be administered through the course of the
semester, one during the semester and the other during finals week. Exams will consist of
true/false, multiple choice, short answer, long answer, and calculation problems. The exam
dates are as follows:
Exam 1: Monday, March 9
Exam 2: TBD – seminar has the same final time
5. Drops and Withdrawals. The last day to drop/add this course is Friday, Feb. 4. The last
day to withdraw from this course is Friday, April 3.
6. Grading: Your final course grade will be determined by the percentages illustrated below.
2 Hour Exams
30%
Project
15%
Homework
20%
Lab activities
35%
Letter Grades are assigned according to the following scale:
100.0% – 93.0% = A; 92.9% – 90.0% = A-; 89.9% - 87.0% = B+; 86.9% - 83.0% = B;
82.9% - 80.0% = B-; 79.9% - 77.0% = C+; 76.9% - 73.0% =C; 72.9% - 70.0% = C-;
69.9% - 67.0% = D+; 66.9% - 60.0% = D
7. Cheating of any sort will not be tolerated. If you are caught intentionally cheating, you will
receive as a minimum penalty an F for the course and may be subject to additional
discipline from the college.
8. Special Consideration: If you require course adaptations or accommodations because of a
documented disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if
you need particular arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an
appointment with me as soon as possible. Office hours and location are given at the top of
the first page of this syllabus.
9. Evacuation Plan: Should it be necessary to evacuate the classroom, the quickest way to
exit is by the main door. Following an evacuation, we MUST meet. This is important as we
must notify emergency personal if someone is potentially in the building. Our meeting
location will be outside the main door to Porter hall. Be aware that emergency vehicles will
be using the parking lot and the drive around Porter.
If you feel you might need assistance in quickly evacuating the building, please notify me.
Tentative list of topics:
Ch. 1 – Introduction to Criminology
Ch. 6.1 –Microscopes
Ch. 5.4 – Separation of Drugs
Ch. 6-7 Drug Analysis
Ch. 11, 13 – Arson & Firearms
Other topics, depending on interest and time: Drugs in the Body, Explosives, Fingerprinting,
Colorants, Inks & Paints, Polymers, Paper and Fibers
Laboratory Specifics
1. Safety and Standard Laboratory Procedures: Safety goggles/glasses are required for this
lab. You will be asked to leave if you do not wear them. Shoes are required. Open-toed sandals
are not acceptable. Keep unnecessary contact with chemicals to a minimum. It is highly
recommended that you wear old clothing and/or a lab coat. Eating, drinking, chewing gum, or
smoking is not permitted. For your safety, become familiar with the location of the nearest
fire extinguisher, safety shower, eyewash, first aid kit, and telephone. Regardless of the
severity, report all accidents to the instructor or TA. . Strict rules regarding clothing and
safety eyewear will be enforced for the lab. Violation of any safety policy/procedure during
the course of the lab will result in the following actions:
1st incident:
2nd incident:
3rd incident:
4th incident:
Verbal Warning
Written Warning
Lose 5 pts off of that lab
Removal from lab
2. Cleanliness: Clean up all spills immediately, especially around the analytical balances.
Replace all bottle lids and caps as soon as you are finished. Before you leave lab, ensure that
your work area is clean. Failure to do so will result in 2 points deducted from your experiment
grade.
3. Equipment: All equipment (balances, glassware, etc.) is shared among the class. Be
considerate and leave the equipment in a clean state before you store it away. We may be
doing some experiments in the earth science labs, since this is not our lab space, carefulness
and cleanliness will be an expectation.
4. Preparation. Advanced preparation for the laboratory will be necessary. There are prelaboratory assignments with some of the labs.
5. Experiments: We will mainly be doing laboratory activities that can be completed in the
two hour time allotted. However, some experiments may require more than one week. Each
experiment will be worth 40 points/week required.
Tentative list of lab experiments:
 Reagent preparation
 Using a Polarized Light Microscope to determine Refractive Index
 Introduction to pKa and Solubility
 Thin-Layer Chromatography of Acid/Base Indicators
 Acid/Base Extraction of Excedrin (2 weeks)
 Solid Does Analysis with Presumptive Tests, TLC, and IR (2 weeks)
 Analysis of Unknowns (3 weeks)
 Gunshot Residue (2 weeks)
Advanced Forensics Project – Crime Scene
Due date: Wednesday, May 6 at 2:00 pm
100 pts.
This project will be done individually. You will be fabricating a crime investigation which needs to
include: schematic of crime scene, at least 5 police reports, list of evidence that goes along with each
police report, and an overall report on the crime scene layout and what evidence could be analyzed.
Your crime scene may be used in future CHEM 103 course and you will give a quick presentation to the
class to “show off” your crime scene. Overall, be creative and have fun!
20 pts – detailed description of crime scene, actors needed, evidence left behind, and a lay-out of area
where the crime will occur. I have done these in the 3rd floor lab, but you are not limited to that. It does
have to be an area where I could get a 40 person class to (and hopefully have a good reason to get them
there!) Ex. hit and run in the parking lot, attempted arson in a lab…murder??
20 pts – Police reports. Can be modeled off the examples that I had handed out, but do not have to.
Need at least five, but you can have as many as needed.
20 pts – list of evidence needed for each component of investigation – initial crime scene and
subsequent police reports. Some of this evidence needs to analyzable by the CHEM 103 course. The
following is a list of tests that they have the ability to do:
 Fingerprint dusting/comparison
 Glass comparison with density or refractive index
 Identification of drugs (they will be at least know what a GC-MS readout means even if
we don’t run the specific drug)
 Ink comparison analysis
 Identification of blood and blood typing
 Shoe print casting and comparison of prints
 Head space analysis of arson accelerants
 Determination of casing and bullet caliber
 Comparison of soils
 Identification of fibers
 Analysis of low explosives
 Also, we will not do DNA analysis but will talk about it in class, so that could be
potential evidence
 Blood alcohol content
20 pts – typed summary of entire crime – from the initial crime, investigation, and finally finding the
perpetrator.
20 pts. – brief presentation to the class – use hand-outs or PowerPoint if needed.