Introduction to Forensic Sciences Spr 2004
Case Study Project UPDATED INFORMATION
Pairs assigned Friday January 16th
Case Study idea due Wednesday January 21st : Turn in one per pair at beginning of class.
If you are unsure about the appropriateness of your case study be sure to contact
one or more of us for clarification.
Annotated Bibliography assignments: each student is responsible for handing in at least
six (6) annotated citations by each assignment deadline (2/6 and 3/15). (Note that
is a total of at least 12 citations per person by the March deadline. Plan to include
time for interlibrary loans and reading of all the material)
re emphasis: Each individual must turn in at least 6 more annotations by the deadline of
March 15th. See the additional clarification of acceptable sources and what an
annotation is at the bottom of this page.
Bibliographic entries must follow the style guide discussed in class and previously
provided (on Blackboard and on the course homepage). Each discipline has its own rules.
When writing for forensics you must follow their rules.
Case Study Outline: each pair is required to turn in a detailed outline of their project
by the assigned deadline (3/15). There are two weeks between this deadline and
the presentations. It is assumed that more research and project development will
occur during that time. This outline should be a work in progress reflecting a
significant amount of input into the content and organization of the presentation.
re emphasis: The deadline of the outline has been moved to FRIDAY MARCH 19th to
assure you do not shortchange work on the second set of annotations or the outline.
Throughout the semester partners will research the application of forensic sciences to a
particular case study. The project will culminate in a 10-15min Powerpoint presentation.
The final presentation should include:
1. An introduction to the case including where it occurred, when it occurred, why it
is a forensic case and other background information.
2. Discussion of the forensic techniques used in your case study.
Define/explain the technique, what it analyzes and how it is performed.
Explain how the technique was used in your case study
Explain what the findings were and what role those findings played in the
case study.
Can include any controversy about the technique, its use, or its reception
3. Final slide(s) listing all bibliographic citations for all references used in preparing
the presentation.
re emphasis: The presentation must represent equal contributions both in
preparation and in presentation. (Everyone speaks)
Annotated Bibliography
In an annotated bibliography full bibliographic citations are accompanied by a
summary of the material included in that reference and how this material is relevant to
your case study.
re emphasis: The purpose of an annotation is to convey to the reader a summary of the
information in article, explain how this information is relevant to your case study and to
Introduction to Forensic Sciences Spr 2004
evaluate the quality and accuracy of the article. In order to do this clearly you will a) have
to read the source (and not a summary or abstract of it), and b) have enough background
information to judge the accuracy and credibility of the source. It will be difficult to do a
complete job in less than 100words per annotation. Included in this project is the
expectation that you will only include sources that are of high quality and are directly
applicable to the use of forensic sciences in your case study.
Clarification of acceptable sources: It was mentioned in class (twice) that accessing the
pdf form of journal or a newspaper article was acceptable but that websites are not
considered reliable sources and should not be used. Some of you are coming across sites
that have definite biases (toward the sensational or toward a particular side of a case).
These sites may be fun to read but are not considered good sources. Your project is to
examine and explain the use of forensic science techniques in your case. This means that
you should be delving into the technical literature about what the techniques are—not
someone’s impression of what they think that someone else might have meant when they
said something (can you hear the objection ‘hearsay’?)
You should be identifying books, journal articles, textbooks that provide information
about the forensic science techniques used in your cases. If you identify a particular site,
created by a reliable source, that you think adds information that you cannot find in a
print source, you should contact us. You must receive our approval in order for a website
to be included in your annotation.