At Lawrence Technology University, senior Madison Green and junior Maryam Al Quraishi drop and measure blood drops. “We were having fun because we weren’t taking it seriously, nobody was,” Green said. Madison enjoyed missing school and instead learning about blood.

On a field trip to Lawrence Technology University, analytical chemistry students learn how forensic scientists use blood spatters to uncover suspects on Wednesday, Nov, 6.

 “I thought Lawrence Tech did a great job of explaining the programs they had and creating a fun little demonstration for the students and getting them to see chemistry in the real world,” chemistry teacher Kelly Swanson said.

The students used their prior knowledge about blood spatters and patterns to solve the fake crime of who stole the brownies from the bakery. They used rulers to measure blood drops and calculated the height of the drop. The students also used velocity and gravity to help discover who the suspect was.

“It related by learning about how the blood drops and how they differentiate from, like, you know, a running blood drop or a walking blood drop or just a standstill blood drop in different heights,” Junior Gavin Lindsay said.

After the students solved the case of the missing brownies, they had the opportunity to create a slushie using pop and liquid nitrogen. 

“The field trip was very fun. It was eye opening,” Lindsay said. It was nice knowing that there’s different opportunities out there, and what they offer at that college.”