Disguises, Iris Scans And Fingerprints
A hands-on camp at SMU this week allows middle school girls to try the technology behind crime solving.
Providing women law enforcement officers and forensic scientists as role models will challenge girls to think about non-traditional careers that put their science and math skills to work in exciting, new ways.
Each day of camp is broken into multiple sessions related to a topic of the day. Students will hear a variety of speakers, do hands-on activities, and play games related to the day's topic. In addition, there will be a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science, and tours of biometric access systems on the campus of SMU. Topics include iris recognition, hand geometry, fingerprints, face recognition, DNA and many more!
"Our goal is to provide a variety of topics that highlight the key role of science, technology and engineering in forensics and real-life problem solving," said Professor Delores M. Etter, director of the Institute.
"Not only are these topics fascinating," Etter continued, "they suggest many possible applications and careers for the future. Speakers will inspire students and serve as role models. Games will reinforce the concepts from the camp. Our goal is that students will be motivated to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)-related careers and STEM-related course work, and spread this excitement to other friends and classmates as well."
The curriculum will be used not only locally but will be made available to a broader community via a web portal. The web portal is being developed by the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education to provide quality STEM resources to students and educators. With the materials and speaker videos provided, others can reuse individual curriculum units in a variety of ways, or even host a camp modeled after the prior year's camp.
Check out the portal at http://www.kidsahead.com/.
The mission of the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education in the Lyle School of Engineering at SMU is to increase the number and diversity of U.S. High School graduates with the enthusiasm and knowledge to pursue the engineering careers that support U.S. competition in a global economy. Before joining the Caruth Institute, Executive Director Delores Etter held two senior executive positions in the Department of Defense – Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition and Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology.
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