Michelle in AL
07-18-2009, 05:35 PM
Since there were several of us interested in a Forensic Science course, I thought I'd post a review of a text I bought for my dd. It was the most commonly used texts on syllabi that I reviewed online and the one with the most positive of reviews. The text I have is Criminalistics An Introduction to Forensic Science by Richard Saferstein. I bought the 8th ed, because it was considerably less expensive than the 9th ed. My copy is from 2004. reviews say the chapter on alcohol and drug detection is out dated, but I thought I could have her research modern techniques for this.
http://www.amazon.com/Criminalistics-Introduction-Forensic-Science-College/dp/0131118528/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247952556&sr=8-1
This book is the college edition and IMO can be easily managed by an average high school student. The chapter I reviewed, Ch 2 the crime scene, read easily and held my attention. The material is presented in a straight forward manner that is easy to process. There are minimal pictures and distractions in this edition. At the end of each chapter there is a case study and a chapter review. Chapter reviews may be used for tests. I wanted to read the chapter and see how the case study applied to what I learned in the reading. In order to discuss the case studies with your student it would require you to skim the chapter. The material in the chapter did apply to the case study, but you'd have to make up your own discussion questions about it.
There is an instructor's manual, which I've ordered but not received yet. It is only 64 pages. I'm hoping it will contain answers to the ch review questions since these are not at the back of the book. It would also be great if it had discussion ?'s about the case study, we'll see.
There is an excellent online resource center for this book with quizzes that could be used for tests and supplementary materials. The supplement for this chapter was how to photograph a crime scene properly.
http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_saferstein_criminalistics_9/48/12531/3208190.cw/index.html
There is also a lab manual.
So, it looks like a thorough, easy to read text, which would require the parent to read/skim the chapters in order to discuss the text. Otherwise a student could do it on their own, without discussion.
http://www.amazon.com/Criminalistics-Introduction-Forensic-Science-College/dp/0131118528/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247952556&sr=8-1
This book is the college edition and IMO can be easily managed by an average high school student. The chapter I reviewed, Ch 2 the crime scene, read easily and held my attention. The material is presented in a straight forward manner that is easy to process. There are minimal pictures and distractions in this edition. At the end of each chapter there is a case study and a chapter review. Chapter reviews may be used for tests. I wanted to read the chapter and see how the case study applied to what I learned in the reading. In order to discuss the case studies with your student it would require you to skim the chapter. The material in the chapter did apply to the case study, but you'd have to make up your own discussion questions about it.
There is an instructor's manual, which I've ordered but not received yet. It is only 64 pages. I'm hoping it will contain answers to the ch review questions since these are not at the back of the book. It would also be great if it had discussion ?'s about the case study, we'll see.
There is an excellent online resource center for this book with quizzes that could be used for tests and supplementary materials. The supplement for this chapter was how to photograph a crime scene properly.
http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_saferstein_criminalistics_9/48/12531/3208190.cw/index.html
There is also a lab manual.
So, it looks like a thorough, easy to read text, which would require the parent to read/skim the chapters in order to discuss the text. Otherwise a student could do it on their own, without discussion.