UA Museum Hosts ‘CSI Alabama’ Saturday, Oct. 7

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Bullet ballistics, finger print comparisons, and DNA analysis; it’s not all Hollywood magic like what you see on television. Students from Hoover High School will demonstrate what they have learned in their forensic science class during “Natural History with the Experts” Saturday, Oct. 7 at the Alabama Museum of Natural History on The University of Alabama campus.

From 2 to 4 p.m. UA’s Smith Hall will transform into a crime scene investigation lab, complete with microscopes, lab coats, and tools for forensic analysis.

Join the experts to learn about lifting latent prints, examining hair and fibers under fluorescent lights, and discovering your own finger print patterns of loops, whorls and arches.

“Students see ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’ on TV, and they want to know if that’s how things are really done,” says Dinah Sisson, forensics teacher at Hoover High School. “They are learning about investigative techniques and realize that forensics science doesn’t always involve dead bodies. I have an incredible group of students, and I enjoy teaching them because they are interested, enthusiastic and want to learn.”

Watch for the CSI Alabama exhibit coming to the UA’s Alabama Museum of Natural History in 2007. The Museum’s operating hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children and retirees.

For more information about the exhibition or programs, contact the Alabama Museum of Natural History, The University of Alabama, Box 870340, Tuscaloosa, Ala. 35487-0340; phone, 205/348-7550, or visit the web site www.amnh.ua.edu.