When entering Mr. Wood’s Forensic Science class, you never know what you’re walking into. Some days you’ll be taking your fingerprints, and on other days you might walk into his class to see slides about toxicology.
Forensic Science is a class that anyone can take at Loy Norrix. Science and Forensic Science teacher Brandon Wood teaches two sections of forensic science.
“I have Forensics A, which is the physical science side of it, and Forensics B, which is more of the life science adjacent part of Forensic Science,” said Wood.
Wood has many labs that go along with lessons as he tries to make the class fun and interactive. He enjoys doing fingerprinting labs with the kids, while other teachers avoid labs at all costs due to the mess.
“As annoying as students can be sometimes, it’s always fun to watch the click happen between the kids. When somebody finally understands something, it just kind of clicks. It’s a lot of fun to watch happen,” said Wood.
Forensic Science covers a wide variety of subjects, including preserving fingerprints, extracting DNA information from hair, and convicting suspects based on the tire treads on their car. As with most teachers, Wood has his favorite subjects to teach in each section of forensic science.
“If I had to pick my favorite topics in forensic science, it would be toxicology, ballistics and forensic anthropology,” said Wood.
During each section of the class, the material goes in-depth into each topic. When teaching about fingerprints, Wood covers the different types, how common they are, and how to collect them from different surfaces. When teaching students about hair, Wood explains its three parts and how to determine if a hair is human or not.
“Toxicology is poisoning, so it’s a lot of chemistry, and chemistry is really my big thing. Ballistics is fun because of the whole firearm aspect of it and trying to use that as a tool,” said Wood. “Then, forensic anthropology is when you’re trying to figure out stuff about a person based on their skeleton. It’s always kind of interesting because there are so few bones that are actually useful for that, but there are so many in the human body.”
In Forensic Science A, people learn about some of the most notorious true crime cases, like the unsolved JonBenet Ramsey case. No one can learn about all of the true crime cases, but some people take an interest in some over others. Wood feels especially passionate about the case of H.H. Holms.
“[Holmes] was a guy in Chicago who built a hotel, but within that hotel were secret passages,” said Wood. “He was one of the first big-name serial killers in the U.S. because he would randomly pick people in his hotel and kill them. He wasn’t just like ‘I’m gonna go kill this person, ’ it was ‘I have constructed this entire building as a death trap.’”
Every other Friday in Wood’s Forensic Science classes, he shows different episodes of “Forensic Files”. “Forensic Files” is a 14-season documentary that showcases how forensic science is used to solve crimes. Some of them follow murders, some follow kidnappings, some are a mixture of both, and some never get solved. Usually, the cases covered are outside of Michigan, but some are within Michigan or even in Kalamazoo.
“The [cases in Kalamazoo] are interesting because of the forensics that’s covered in them, but the cases aren’t really memorable. I play them to show that it can happen anywhere. Interesting things can be learned through them, no matter where the murder actually happens. There’s not really one that stands out because it’s an interesting case, because it’s just the basic kind of murder, it’s the forensics involved that make them more interesting,” said Wood.
If someone is interested in crimes, criminal justice, criminal investigation, or related fields, then forensic science is a class they should consider taking.
“The skills you learn in chemistry, physics, and biology transfer out to other disciplines better than the skills you learn in forensic science,” said Wood. “But if this kind of stuff doesn’t interest you, the class is going to be more boring. Granted, I understand a lot of science classes are boring anyway because people are not as interested in science anymore. But if you’re not interested in going down a specific path into Criminal Justice, Forensic Science is maybe not the best class for you to take.”
