Large Scale Simulation for Education in Forensic DNA Science

Abstract

Forensic science education is a rapidly expanding field with several universities adding degrees in many forensic science disciplines. Concurrently, with this expansion is a new push for forensic science education in the secondary schools. This generation of students is also very adept at computer generated environments. The logical progression is therefore to provide students and instructors with a simulated environment to immerse students into forensic science investigations. The Island of Tir Ebensëa is a developing system that generates a large scale population and forensic scenarios and places the students as the investigators. Students are provided with a scenario and then generate queries to gain information about the people involved in the case. They can then draw conclusions about the scenario and compare these conclusions to the known answer. The simulation is available to educational institutions.