Texas A&M-Corpus Christi students step into staged crime scenes for hands-on training, gaining real-world experience in investigations and teamwork.<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Students at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi are stepping out of the classroom and into what looks like a real-life crime scene as part of a hands-on learning experience designed to mirror real investigations.<\/p>\n
The university\u2019s annual crime lab allows criminal justice majors to work through a staged case, complete with actors, evidence and simulated scenarios. Faculty say the goal is to give students a realistic understanding of how investigations unfold beyond textbooks.<\/p>\n
Wendi Pollock, a criminal justice professor, said classroom discussions can only go so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can talk about it and it\u2019s an excellent place to start when you talk about what\u2019s going to happen, but until you get out there, do it, see it, feel it, get a sense of all the players in the room, you really don\u2019t understand,\u201d Pollock said.<\/p>\n
Students take on roles ranging from evidence collection to interviewing witnesses, gaining exposure to the teamwork required at a crime scene.<\/p>\n
Thomas Flowers, a criminal justice major, said being part of the experience has been meaningful.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo give A&M Corpus Christi a beacon for criminal justice is really riveting, at least from my perspective, and to be a part of like the person who\u2019s setting it up, it\u2019s beyond my wildest dreams,\u201d Flowers said.<\/p>\n
Organizers say the goal is to help students understand what each person does at a crime scene and how investigations work in real-world settings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas A&M-Corpus Christi students step into staged crime scenes for hands-on training, gaining real-world experience in investigations and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-220908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}