Summer 2012: Forensic Anthropology
Remember how I was going to take Forensic Anthropology and then totally didn't?
I took the first step on the path of fixing that mistake today. It was the first day of the summer session of Forensic Anthropology today. The class is very small - probably no more than fifteen people. It'll be very rushed, because it's only five weeks long. But I'm excited, because I really need to learn how to handle bones and how to identify them, and the professor assures us that she'll have us sexing and aging skeletons before we leave her class.
It's going to be a crazy month, though. In addition to learning all the names of the bones of the skeleton and how to age and sex them, we'll be writing a research paper or presenting a ten minute talk to the class about some sort of forensic topic. She mentioned that she once had a student who did a facial reconstruction. She gave them a skull and they were able to use clay to recreate the individual's face. That got me thinking that maybe I can do a 2-D facial reconstruction. I mean, I sure don't know anything about sculpting a face but I could definitely draw one. Plus, if I can fill up half of my speech time talking about my artistic process, maybe I won't have to do a ton of extra research. She seemed intrigued by the idea, anyway.
There's a quiz or test every week. By next week, we're expected to identify whether a bone is human or non-human, even if she just gives us a fragment. I'm nervous about how much work this class is going to be, but I'm also terribly excited for it.
I took the first step on the path of fixing that mistake today. It was the first day of the summer session of Forensic Anthropology today. The class is very small - probably no more than fifteen people. It'll be very rushed, because it's only five weeks long. But I'm excited, because I really need to learn how to handle bones and how to identify them, and the professor assures us that she'll have us sexing and aging skeletons before we leave her class.
It's going to be a crazy month, though. In addition to learning all the names of the bones of the skeleton and how to age and sex them, we'll be writing a research paper or presenting a ten minute talk to the class about some sort of forensic topic. She mentioned that she once had a student who did a facial reconstruction. She gave them a skull and they were able to use clay to recreate the individual's face. That got me thinking that maybe I can do a 2-D facial reconstruction. I mean, I sure don't know anything about sculpting a face but I could definitely draw one. Plus, if I can fill up half of my speech time talking about my artistic process, maybe I won't have to do a ton of extra research. She seemed intrigued by the idea, anyway.
There's a quiz or test every week. By next week, we're expected to identify whether a bone is human or non-human, even if she just gives us a fragment. I'm nervous about how much work this class is going to be, but I'm also terribly excited for it.