Kids Camp Teaches Forensics Fake Crime-Scene Probes Draw Students Into World Of Chemistry

Wisconsin State Journal :: LOCAL :: A5, Monday, August 11, 2008, By PAMELA COTANT For the State Journal. Nick Gabel enjoyed the Fun with Forensic Science camp so much it made him think about a career in the field. "I think this camp has inspired me" to become a crime scene investigator, said Gabel, who will be a seventh-grader in New Glarus. The camp features activities that mimic crime-scene investigations and guest speakers from forensic science-related careers also speak to the group. Gabel had other thoughts when he signed up for the camp - one of four Fun with Chemistry Camps run by the Institute for Chemical Education in the summer. "I thought it sounded interesting and I wanted to meet new people," he said. The four camps include one that's called Fun with Chemistry and two others called the Science Behind the Superhero and Fun with Chemistry Inventions. The weeklong camps, which run in the afternoons in the Chemistry Building on the UW-Madison campus, are open to students in grades five through eight. The forensic camp is one of the most popular and was full with 50 students. "I think the forensics one is the most popular because of the crime scenes that are on television," said Jenny Powell, program director for the camp and associate outreach specialist at UW-Madison. "Forensics is fun. It's a fun way to learn science." Guest speakers include a forensic pathologist, a Madison police detective and someone with a doctorate in clinical laboratory science who talked about blood and urine analysis. The camps are designed to get kids excited about science, to give them more self-confidence in their abilities to learn science and to present scientists as "just regular people," Powell said. Vishal Narayanaswamy, who will be in sixth grade at Jefferson Middle School this year, attended all four camps this summer. "My mom told me about these chemistry camps so I thought, Sure,'" he said. "Just seeing a chemical reaction occurring is mind-boggling." Narayanaswamy said learning about chemistry will be helpful in his career aspirations. "I have an ambition to be a cardiologist because I think it's noble to save people's lives," he said.