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Schools

Summer Camp Sleuth Search

Carrollwood Day School is offering a host of summer camp classes that are open to the public. Patch investigated their CSI camp.

Ethan Hernandez holds an eye-dropper 12 inches away from a square of carpet.

The 9-year-old isn't trying to remove a stain he made on the family room rug. He's analyzing different spattering patterns on different types of surfaces in an effort to solve a crime that was committed in the very classroom he sits in.

Crime Scene Instruction Camp is one of many summer offerings at Carrollwood Day School, 1515 W. Bearss Avenue. In all, 28 summer camps are open to the public. Four camps will wrap up this week, but five more are scheduled for next week.

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Cost ranges from $100 to $250 per camp, and they run Monday through Friday. Next week, CDS will offer: Robotics, The Great Art Adventure, Aikido, Heroes of Myth, and Be a Star.

Camp instructor and fifth grade teacher at CDS Barbie Monty put the CSI class together this year. It's the first year of the class.  Monty dedicates the idea to her late father, who was a police chief in Mississippi.

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"It's wonderful for me to feel like I'm a part of the field, at least in the area of an educator," said Monty. "I've been around it all my life, and remember as a child wanting to do this."

The campers are introduced to all aspects of forensic science including: ballistics, serology and pathology. Each of the campers are taught which parts of the crime scene pertain to which aspect of forensic science. 

Then, the campers are introduced to a mock crime scene in their own classroom, where they have to process and analyze.

"Every crime scene," said Monty, "tells a story."

The students mark and measure everything, from footprints to furniture. By the end of the class, they will be able to re-construct the crime.

Monty reminds the kids that forensic science is "not just a career. It's an adventure."

Monty said he hopes the knowledge the students learn at CSI camp lasts a lifetime.

"If I can maybe inspire one kid to go into forensic science, it fulfills my mission," said Monty.

Click here for a detailed listing of all the summer camps. Click here for the main page for Carrollwood Day School.

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