OliviaVitantonioHawkenProject2024

I was inspired to do this project because I plan to major in Forensics in college. I also wanted to participate in and help my favorite intensive at Hawken. Overall, my TA experience went well. I learned new things about what planning, thought, and care go into designing lessons. I got to help set up labs that students had to do, and I knew them well because I had done them before. It was rewarding to help my fellow classmates and underclassmen in something I am passionate about. I had a fantastic time revisiting old memories and making new ones. I was hoping to help others learn more about the field of forensics and learn more about it myself. The experiences I gained this year while helping the Forensic Files intensive were invaluable, and I felt accomplished being able to guide other students. We all had fun along the way. One of the most shocking things I learned while on the project is how difficult it is to be a teacher and keep kids engaged. I realized I owe my teachers an a...

This morning, the LCMEO called me to inform me that they are doing an autopsy on Thursday at 7:15 a.m. They do their autopsy at Lake West Hospital, which is where I will be going on Thursday to meet the ME, and he will take me to the viewing room. I am really excited about the opportunity to be able to watch an autopsy and share the experience afterward. It will be nice to see an aspect of the career I am interested in and see the ins and outs of what needs to be done. It was also the last day to finalize everything for the group's crime scenes for showcase Wednesday. Some groups are solid and have everything ready to go. We have a few groups who need to really lock in Wednesday morning to finish up things. However, I think the showcase will go very well, and I believe people will really enjoy trying to figure out the group's crime scenes. Some of the crime scenes are easier to solve than others. I really like the one in the dressing room and the humanities conference room. I b...

I checked the groups and where they were making their miniature, narrative, one-pager, materials, evidence, and stickers. When I checked, I asked where they were with these things, and I rated them on a five-star scale based on how complete and well done. Some groups still needed to work on things, but most were finished and done exceptionally well. After I visited all the groups, I reported what I had seen and heard to Dr. Chick and Coach Hace. They knew who needed more help and which groups to check in on more for the work day coming up. While I was checking on the groups, I gave them some feedback and ideas for things they could add or clarify in the miniature. I also had them walk me through their crime scenes. How did they want it to look? Were there things they still needed? Has everyone been doing the work they've needed to do? Everyone seemed on the same page, and the workload was evenly distributed among all group members. Everyone's miniature crime scenes were coming ...

This week, the students will work in groups to create their own crime scenes as the final project for the showcase. There are five groups. Four of the scenes are homicides, and one is an accidental death. My job is to ask questions and help out if needed. We want to make sure these crime scenes do not have any flaws. They are supposed to be challenging but not so difficult that people can not figure them out. I am also in charge of keeping track of the items used for each scene and reserving rooms for the showcase. I will be helping groups set up on the showcase to make sure everything makes sense, and I will check the narratives they had to write. I had to check in with groups to ensure they had everything they needed and that everyone was doing the work they were assigned by the group. This is their big project, and I think everyone will enjoy the scenes they have made. Some are funny, and some have a huge twist. They will also be doing a DNA lab to learn how DNA is identifi...

We went to the Mansfield Reformatory, a historic prison in Mansfield, Ohio. When I took this class last year, we went to this reformatory I thought it was the coolest thing. This year was no different. We had a different tour guide, and the tour started in a different area. I learned some new things that weren't mentioned last year and noticed some things were not mentioned. Our tour guide did not mention the attempted escape in the chapel and did not turn the lights off in the "attic" where they had kept hundreds of men. We did learn more about the Wardens of the prison, which was very interesting. It was nice to see the "portal to hell" in the prison which is speculated to be the center of the building. We got to walk through the East and West cell blocks, and there is a stark difference between them. The East cell block was for the more unsavory convicts. This cell block held more of the prisons, murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. In the west cell block, you...

After we went to the CCMEO, a pig autopsy was scheduled. I had already done many of these because of my previous classes and intensives, so my role was to help when needed. People could ask me questions, or I could help them remove the pig's brain if they wanted to. The first thing they had to do was pick which fetal pig they wanted. Some people named their pigs. There was Wilber, Peppa, and Steffy P. This wasn't just a dissection; they had to go through the process of an autopsy. The external examination, weighing the body and organs, and suturing the body back up. I helped people with their first incisions into the "body," showing them how to peel the skin and mussel tissue back to get a better look into the pig. When they were looking through the organs,  I helped them identify which organ was which. I think everyone had a lot of fun either actually doing the autopsy or those who decided not to who took notes and wrote down the needed information. There was a lot o...

This week, we went to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office. I had already been on the tour of the CCMEO from last year, and nothing changed from what my Forensics class saw. During this tour, we did not get to speak with Scott, the fingerprinting tech at the CCMEO. When we arrived, our tour guide, Chris, gave everyone the rundown of what we would and might see. Fun fact: more men pass out at the morgue than women. Our first stop was the viewing room, which is where the family or loved ones of the deceased identify the body behind a screen. The next place we went was the basement. This is where the body coolers, the garage, and decomp room/suite are. They like to say it's a suite because they're fancy like that. We got to see into the body cooler. Usually, the morgue is great about not having any cadaver faces showing, but this time, there was one, and he looked like he might have come from the hospital because there was a tube sticking out of his mouth. It was a br...

  As the short week went on, I continued to make crime scenes for students to investigate. These three crime scenes I made were a drowning, dismemberment, and overdose. I used the materials and classrooms I could access to create new and exciting scenes. After the group's initial walk-through of the scene, Dr. Chick and Coach Hace had me go back and change some of the critical components of the case. A new group would go through one of the three crime scenes and try to recreate the original one based on the previous group's notes. They wanted to show them how important taking extensive notes is in an investigation. We also went to downtown Cleveland to play CLUEDUP, a solve-the-mystery game. I joined a group and ran around downtown to find evidence and solve riddles to find out who had murdered four people in the area. It was a fun game with interactive challenges that forced us to use our problem-solving skills. The other minor challenge was to see which of the groups would fi...

  On the first day, I created three crime scenes for students to investigate. The three were random and had little of a story behind them. Those were for an initial look into a crime scene and to see how they would instinctively move through one without guidance. There was a kidnapping, dismemberment, and one in the process of a cover-up. I can access many different items and "bodies" to choose from when creating crime scenes. Some will be very bloody, and others might not, but I have complete creative freedom to do whatever I see fit for the students to look through. The point was to get people thinking about what to do and how to approach a scene. We wanted to see who used inductive versus deductive reasoning. Were people trying to use what they initially saw to make a story, or were they looking at all the evidence and letting it "speak." I remember doing this same exercise when I took this intensive last year, and I pulled inspiration from what I remembered of t...

 I chose to TA Dr. Chick and Coach Hace's Forensic Files intensive for my Hawken project while being on call for the Lake County Medical Examiner's Office to watch an autopsy. I wanted my project to center around forensics as I will major in it for college. Revisiting and helping one of my favorite intensives would be the perfect fit. Not only will I be able to learn more about the fields forensics is involved with, but I also get to share my experiences and knowledge with the underclassmen. I get to set up crime scenes; that's a bonus. I'm thrilled I get to help and have much fun doing the things I love. I can't wait to get a call from LCMEO!