Our Year 9 Criminology students became citizen scientists last week when they took part in the Shake it out for Science project.
The project is a collaboration between the Australian Federal Police, ChemCentre and Curtin University and trains participants how to shake and collect debris from clothing items using a technique that is employed by forensic experts across Australia.
The “shakings” collected from a range of student and teacher garments will then be sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory at ChemCentre, where they will be examined for trace evidence – specifically glass fragments.
HASS Teacher Emilie Ingate said taking part in the pilot project gave students an insight into the world of forensic testing.
“Students had to be very precise in both their collection and packaging methods, with each sample sealed and labelled correctly,” she said.
Students needed to complete an online questionnaire for each shaking sample submitted.
The aim of this year’s Shake it out for Science project is for the data collected to provide an estimation of background levels of broken glass in the population.
