Completion of Introduction to Forensic Science Course

Due to the escalating COVID-19 situation, many events are cancelled and businesses are either partially or fully closed. As such, I decided to recommence my e-learning to keep myself occupied while at home. Since there is nothing much we can do outside due to social distancing measures, it would be a wiser choice to do some e-learning to gain as much knowledge as possible during this fearful time. The knowledge and/or certifications obtained may be of good use in future when this deadly virus situation turns better. The last time I did e-learning was around October 2018 which was more than a year ago. Ever since I decided to do e-learning again in mid February 2020, I have completed 6 courses including this one and obtained the e-certificate for each of them. As a professional working in the IT industry, I would naturally chose to study IT related courses such as Cybersecurity and Artifical Intelligence (AI) which are highly sought after these days. Many like-minded people would agree that we should pursue courses related to our profession which are beneficial to our work and for better career prospects. Therefore, I had proceeded according to plan and have completed the Cybersecurity specialisation (consisting of 4 courses) and AI Introduction course, both offered by IBM on Coursera e-learning platform. After completing these 2 learning areas, I happened to chance upon this Introduction to Forensic Science online course offered by Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore on Coursera platform while searching for a course to study. A glance through the course syllabus aroused my interest as Science was my favourite subject back in secondary school which I often scored well. In fact, if I had not chosen to study IT in polytechnic, I would have chosen a Science related course such as Biotechnology. This is a hidden fact buried in my heart after secondary school till today. Although I am not really a big fan of CSI, I have always been fascinated by how Science is applied in real life to help us in work and improve the way we live. Overall, it had been an enjoyable learning experience and I am proud to have completed this course which is the first course/certification outside my area of work.



Here are some important information and my learning experience for this course.

Topics Covered

1. Introduction to Forensic Science
2. Chemical Analysis in Forensic Science
3. Time of Death; Blood
4. DNA in Forensics
5. Fingerprinting; Polymers & Fibres; Firearms
6. Narcotics
7. Toxicology
8. Case Studies

Schedule

It takes approximately 25 hours to complete this course. The recommended time to commit, including attempting all the assessments is around 3 hours per week for a total of 8 weeks. However, I was so addicted to this course that I managed to complete all the lectures and assessments within a week. The moment I studied the first lecture, I looked forward to study the next one so much that I made use of my time after lunch break and also after work to study.

Instructor

This course is taught solely by Associate Professor Roderick Bates from the School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Professor Bates is a British who has taught in several South East Asian universities prior to joining NTU. Throughout the course, he explained the underlying scientific concepts well enough for layman (someone without professional knowledge in chemistry) to understand. Initially, I was worried about not being able to comprehend all the scientific terminologies and concepts which are the fundamentals for Forensic Science. Although I had studied Chemistry for O'Levels, it was more than 20 years ago since the last time I was in touch with this subject. Fortunately, the underlying scientific concepts were not as difficult to understand as I expected. Anyone who has studied Science in secondary school would be able to undergo this course successfully. Moreover, the assessments in this course do not test learners much of these underlying scientific concepts. Professor Bates also demostrated some of the more important experiemnts in the NTU Chemistry lab and shared numerous case studies from all over the world in which how Forensic Science was applied to solve crimes. However, since he is a British, most of the case studies he shared are from the United Kingdom.

Assessment

The assessment for this course consists of 3 quizzes, each consisting of 15 multiple choice questions and 2 assignments. According to schedule, learners are expected to attempt quiz at the end of week 3, 5 and 7 while assignments are at the end of week 4 and 6. There is no assessment for week 8 lesson as it is purely sharing of case studies by Professor Bates. Since this course is hosted on Coursera, it is required to abide by the passing standards set up this reputable e-learning platform. Learners need to obtain a score of at least 60% to pass all the quizzes. Reattempting a quiz is possible but to ensure that learners study the materials throughly before reattempting the quiz, there is a limit of maximum 3 attempts every 8 hours. Both assignments are scenario based which test learners on reasoning and application of the various techniques to solve crimes. Upon submission, assignments will be graded by 4 other fellow learners accordingly to the rubrics provided. A learner is also required to review at least 4 other random learners' submitted assignments in order to complete the assignment.

Some interesting things I learnt from this course are ...

Chromatography, a simple Chemistry technique for the separation of a mixture by passing it in solution or suspension through a medium in which the components move at different rates are also applied in Forensic Science. I vividly remeber doing this experiment back in lower secondary.

Identical twins have almost similar DNA. In the event when one of the twins is a suspect for a case, it would require much effort and money to identify which one. In fact, there are such instances which the criminal charges were dropped due to the extremely insane effort and cost to identify which of the identical twins is gulity.

If you intend to commit a crime, it is advisable to wear white cotton clothing as all cotton materials have the same composition and fibre pattern. Hence, there is no way to unique identify a piece of cotton clothing or trace the manufacturer. Fortunately, most cotton clothings are dyed with colour and it is possible to analyse the composition of the dye and trace the manufacturer and buyer

In order to know whether a bullet is fired from a firearm found at the crime scene, simply just load a bullet into the firearm and fire it. The striations (series of ridges, furrows or linear marks) caused by the firing are unique for every firearm. In this way, we can compare both bullets. If their striations matches, then we can conclude that the bullet found is indeed fired from the firearm.

Codeine, which is a medicine used to relieve cold symptoms is made from the opium poppy plant, the same plant in which opium, morphine and heroin are made from. This indeed sounds scary to me as Codeine was prescribed as medicine to me by the doctor I used to visit. In fact, there are some drug addicts who manage to turn codeine into diacetylmorphine which is a "stronger" form of morphine using chemicals which are readily available.

Forensic Science also plays a part in Archeology by helping to determine whether a set of skeletal remains belong to King Richard III of England through the matching of mitochondrial DNA with that of the descendants of the King. This is fascinating as the skeletal remains are more than 500 years old and such technique is only available quite recently.

Ironically, my alma mater, Presbyterian High School (PHS) adopts Forensic and Pharmaceutical Science as their Applied Learning Programme (ALP). The school's ALP gives students the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills from different disciplines of STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) to solve meaningful problems. Engaging students in investigative Science and experiential scientific inquiry promotes their interest in STEM activities, not only during their school years but also throughout their lives. From what I understand from the teacher who is currently the Head of Department (HOD) for Science in the school, this is an non-examinable subject for the students. However, students who do well in this subject may be awarded bonus points for entry into related courses in polytechnic. The obvious difference I spotted between this Forensic Science course I studied and the one which PHS students studied is that theirs consist mostly of practical lessons while mine consist of purely theory lessons. The drawback of my course is the lack of opportunity to conduct experiments. Nevertheless, it is definitely a wonderful experience to learn how Science is applied in solving problems in real life.

If you are a fan of those CSI or Hong Kong crime investigation movies, why not consider to convert your interest into action and perhaps someday you could be a real Forensic investigator?