Blood splatter, autopsy lessons offered at Vancouver Police Museum
Bethany Lindsay, CTV, Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The trigonometry of blood splatter and physics of bullet trajectories are
the latest classes on the curriculum in Canada's poorest neighbourhood.
Beginning Tuesday night, the Vancouver Police Museum, housed in Vancouver's
former morgue in the Downtown Eastside, is hosting a series of seminars
about forensics and crime.
Executive Director Chris Mathieson told CTV that the museum's location makes
it a "natural place" to teach people a little more about the science of
solving crimes than they would learn from watching "CSI."
"You see so much on TV and in the newspapers. This demystifies it, makes it
a little more real," Mathieson said.
The three themes will be forensic pathology, blood spatter and ballistics.
The museum has warned that the classes aren't for kids and could contain
graphic material, but Mathieson said, "None of them get particularly
disgusting."
The first two workshops are scheduled for tonight, and cover the science of
autopsies and how they can be used to solve crimes.
No actual corpses will make an appearance, but participants will get to look
at some of the tools used in the almost 15,000 autopsies performed in the
morgue between 1932 and 1980.
On April 20, the workshop is in blood-spatter analysis, which Mathieson
described as "pretty interactive" and possibly a little messy, too.
But he said the point isn't to recreate a blood bath: "It's a physics
lesson. It's a trigonometry lesson."
The final ballistics seminars on April 27 have been deemed the most
"fainter-friendly" by the museum.
Participants will learn how to analyze bullet trajectories and impact
patterns.
Earlier this year, the museum did a trial run of each of the workshops,
advertising only through social media.
"The feedback was overwhelmingly positive," Mathieson said.
A surprising number of fiction writers attended the workshops, looking to
check some facts and gain some insight, he added.
To view the complete schedule of workshops, or to register for classes,
visit the museum's website at:
http://www.vancouverpolicemuseum.ca/weblog/2010/03/forensics- for-adults
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Cross-Posted from the BC Museums Listserv to help with analysis of spots and
stains on historic buildings, and for Gabriel O to help him get the facts,
just the facts.
cp in bc
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