Imagine a terrible hit-and-run accident; the criminal totals an innocent kid’s car, takes off and leaves the victim with only a glimpse of the criminal’s face. Replicating that person’s image would be near to impossible, but not for Mrs. Rachel Thomas’s, Science, forensics class.
“Mrs. Thomas wanted to show us how hard it was to recreate a person because we are talking about eye witnesses and how someone would describe the criminal to the police,” Olivia Middleton (11) said.
Instead of studying from the book about the ways facial reconstruction is done, Mrs. Thomas decided to challenge her students with reconstructing an image of themselves in the computer lab.
“They are using the computer program because you have to be a true, true artist to draw it, and not all of us are, so we’re showing them that there is this program that they can use that can help them to try to get to an image that looks similar to the person they are trying to draw,” Mrs. Thomas said.
Most students found the facial reconstruction activity on the computer program more enjoyable than a basic classroom project.
“We got to work with the computer program and make people. It was really fun,” Mia Ainscough (11) said.
Throughout the process, the students learned how hard it was to not only replicate someone else’s appearance, but themselves as well.
“Imagine if there was a crime that was committed, and you only saw that person for a second, imagine how much harder it is to draw that person if you can’t even draw yourself,” Mrs. Thomas said.
