Teachers and students from elementary and middle schools along the Front Range will descend on the University of Colorado at Boulder Feb. 6 to become forensic scientists for a day.
The 105 students and 21 teachers from 12 different schools will participate in a series of hands-on workshops at the Coors Events/Conference Center designed by CU's Science Explorers.
"The purpose is to give teachers and students in fifth through eighth grades a day of hands-on science, and to hopefully make science fun for them," said Lannie Hagan, Science Explorers coordinator.
Twenty-one teams, each comprised of one teacher and five students, will investigate the "Who Stole the Bones?" mystery throughout three different workshops, according to Hagan.
The workshops include an anthropology investigation, a fingerprinting experiment and a lesson in DNA testing, Hagan said.
At the end of the day, students and teachers will receive kits to take back to their classrooms and reconstruct the day's experiments for other students.
"The goal is that at the end of the day students and teachers will be able to go back and teach the other kids what they learned," Hagan said.
The Science Explorers program conducts 22 theme-oriented workshops a year. The group holds some workshops at CU and travels to more than 15 schools throughout the state.
For more information on Science Explorers contact Hagan at (303) 492-0771 or visit the Web at .