This NJIT Alumna Is Building the Case for Forensic Science Talent in Newark Schools
It wasn’t more than a few months after she graduated with a biology degree in May of 2016 that NJIT alumna Pamela Carman swapped the university’s labs and lecture halls for a classroom all her own, just minutes from campus at Newark’s East Side High School.
Since then, Carman has become the driving force behind an up-and-coming curriculum that is training the city’s high school seniors in the latest investigative techniques used by professional forensic scientists.
Already, she’s earned award-winning success along the way.
“I love teaching forensic science,” said Carman. “I wanted to teach in Newark after I became connected to the students and community during my student-teaching experience while I was at NJIT. Many of my students struggle with so much in their personal lives … some work, take care of siblings, or don't have much parent involvement. I wanted to make a difference not only as a teacher to my students, but as a mentor.
“I really enjoy hearing students tell me they ‘never liked science before’, and seeing their interest spark for the first time because they want to learn what goes into the crime shows they see on TV.”
At NJIT, Carman started her journey working as a biology student-teacher in Newark in 2015 while completing her undergrad degree with a chemistry minor. However, after fully settling into her full-time teaching position by 2018, she learned of NJIT’s new Forensic Science program and quickly began working with her school’s staff and NJIT Forensic Science Professor of Practice David Fisher, building what would become a high school forensic science curriculum from scratch.
Today, it has grown by leaps and bounds, and even includes college-level forensic courses.
“My first year, I was given forensic science to instruct as an elective because they didn’t have anyone to teach it. … Our district went from having just a general education forensic science elective to having honors and bilingual classes, as well as NJIT’s ‘Intro to Forensic Science’ class, in about two years,” recalled Carman, who earned the NJIT College of Science and Liberal Arts’ Rising Alumni Award last May.
And New Jersey’s forensic science community has noticed her efforts as well.
Carman was awarded the Forensic Science Foundation’s 2020 Warren-Young Scholarship, an educator’s honor that has provided critical funding to help Carman purchase lab supplies, equipment, books and other materials that aids her students in studying basic scientific principles and procedures applied in labs and on the streets by C.S.I. units today.
“Before the scholarship, I relied heavily on online resources. I wrote publishing companies of every major forensic science textbook and received ‘sample copies’ to help me develop an appropriate curriculum with up-to-date information,” said Carman. “Forensic science is such a rapidly evolving field, so the scholarship really helped us give our kids current resources and information that has been crucial.”
Carman says her class mimics the work of various forensic units throughout the school year — from investigative units examining bullet trajectory in the school gymnasium, to hair units that collect and analyze scale patterns of hair strands under the microscope, revealing whether their samples are animal hair, or hair from a possible human suspect.
“The students would get so excited to be out of the classroom and investigate these mock crime scenes we put together,” said Carman. “My personal favorite is our blood unit, where students design their own lab to determine how fake blood spatters from different heights, angles of impact and target surfaces. It’s messy, but great.”
And while last year’s shift to virtual classroom environments has come with challenges, particularly in addressing student stresses in lock-down and securing access to things like Chromebooks and Wi-Fi, Carman says her forensic students have adapted.
“During the past year I’ve had my students do weekly reflections with me as ‘mental health check-ins’ to see where they are at and what I can do, because it’s been really stressful on some of them,” said Carman. “But the plus side about forensic science is that there are so many virtual labs that have been developed in recent years. While we've been remote learning, my students have been completing virtual DNA extraction, PCR analysis, gel electrophoresis, and more.”
With the return of in-person instruction in the city this fall, Carman has been connecting with Fisher and others at her Alma Mater for guidance on new ways she can improve her students’ forensic science classes. NJIT, meanwhile, has announced its Forensic Science Initiative, which will soon give her students and other Newark high school students a new pathway to enrolling in NJIT’s forensic science program, and possibly, landing the C.S.I. careers they see played out on TV.
“I have really been looking forward to teaching in-person again and fully making full use of the Warren-Young Scholarship and the resources it provides,” said Carman. “My hope for forensic science education is that it continues to grow. … Now that NJIT has a forensic science program here in Newark, it is a more attainable goal for our students to see that this is a degree that can be achieved locally.”
