Camp CSI Birmingham: 2024

The Details

DATES: June 24 – 28, 2024

TIME: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

AGES: 10th - 12th grade (includes rising 10th graders and graduated seniors)

COST: $200 per student + $150 non-refundable registration fee ($350 total), Register and pay tuition online. Cost of the camp includes lunch and a snack each day!

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 31, 2024. Registration is limited to 20 participants for each camp session and will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

LOCATION: Forensic Science Laboratories, University Boulevard Office Building Room 306, 1201 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294.

COVID GUIDELINES: Camp CSI will follow the masking guidelines and COVID restrictions set by UAB. UAB no longer requires masks to be worn inside non-clinical university buildings, with some exceptions. Restrictions may change before the camp is held. Any changes will be communicated directly.

Daily Activities

• On the first day of camp, students meet in Criminal Justice’s Teaching Lab and are divided into five four-member teams and given details of their first case. Each group is assigned a camp counselor — forensic science undergraduate and graduate students. Counselors supervise the campers, but the campers do all the work!
• Each day begins with staff (graduate students, forensic science/criminal justice faculty) presentation to the teams of background on the case for the day; each team is assigned a case (e.g., who, what, where, when, etc.). Staff will first assess students’ core knowledge of the subject matter for the day (e.g., DNA) by asking the group questions and engaging them in dialogue about the topic.
• For the remainder of the week, students analyze evidence in the crime lab. After training with known samples, each team receives evidence from additional crime scenes and all team members participate in analyzing the evidence.
• After the students process the evidence and answer staff questions about the evidence (in front of the others), staff reveal the true facts of the case by reconstructing what actually happened.
• Cases from each day are related to a series of crimes where suspects, victims, and witnesses are linked together.
• On Thursday, the students will have one big crime scene where each group will have to collect a different type of evidence and process that evidence in the afternoon. On Friday, group members will question the suspect, and there will be a mock trial where members from each group will testify about their evidence as an expert witness and play the role of prosecuting and defense attorneys. Finally, the guilty party will be revealed.