LAPLACE – Physics students at St. Charles Catholic High School in LaPlace are busy exploring forensics in the school’s physics lab. Student’s dropped fake blood from different heights to determine if the height from which the blood was dropped effects the width of the drop. Students learned that FBI investigators sometimes determine the cause of death by the velocity and diameter of the blood drops.  
These hands-on activities provide students an interactive experience through important physics content and exciting activities that enliven the study of physics.
According to Jordan Snowdy, “Mr. Madere’s physics labs are very instructional and really brings the textbook to life.”
In SCC teacher Shawn Madere’s lab, students were actively engaged in the science of physics.  Students performed a number of trials in which they dropped drops of blood from different heights, angles and directions. Afterwards, they had to determine the height from which a drop of blood was dropped and the angle or direction of another. Junior Albert Hane stated that this lab, “was was a new, fun and hands-on way to about how the FBI does its job.”