Engaging High School Students with Forensic Science: Bringing CSI into the Classroom to Teach Multiple Disciplines [Pipelining: Attractive Programs for Women]

Patricia Bertino places a raw, grocerystore roasting chicken in a shady area of the woods, slices into its side with scissors, and then covers it with a grated fire pit so the larger scavengers won't drag it away. After a few minutes, attracted by the scent of mortality, female blowflies start landing and laying their eggs. Then, there is a flurry of insect succession and activity, as carrion and other beetles arrive to feast, mate, and deposit and defend their eggs on the decomposing chicken. For the next seven days, Bertino observes this "ever-changing habitat," as she calls it.