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CSI-Girls: Campers Investigate Career Possibilities

Professor Delores Etter, left, helps Jean Ross, right, a CIA case officer, as she demonstrates the art of disguise to girls attending forensics camp. Wearing a short, black wig and oversized eyeglasses, the cute middle-school girl was transformed into a young woman few would give a second glance. Mission accomplished. “You want to become nondescript, […]

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Professor Delores Etter, left, helps Jean Ross, right, a CIA case officer, as she demonstrates the art of disguise to girls attending forensics camp.

Wearing a short, black wig and oversized eyeglasses, the cute middle-school girl was transformed into a young woman few would give a second glance.
Mission accomplished.
“You want to become nondescript, you want to blend into the crowd,” explains Jean Ross, a CIA case officer who dramatically demonstrated her specialty in the art of disguise on the audience volunteer.
The session was part of the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education’s CSI-Girls Forensic Evidence and Biometrics Summer Camp. The weeklong pilot program – held on campus in July &ndash offered interactive opportunities for 80 girls entering sixth through eighth grades to study hand geometry, fingerprinting, polygraphs, DNA identification and other topics.
Institute Director Delores Etter, an expert in biometrics, particularly iris recognition, believes this nation’s future depends on the technical agility of the next generation. A key to staying a step ahead is to engage youngsters, especially girls, before they’ve shied away from math and science, she says.
During the camp, female law enforcement officers and forensic experts introduced their occupations to students through discussions and hands-on activities.
Emily Christopher, 11, says the experience was an eye-opener. “It was really interesting to learn about so many different jobs that I didn’t know existed. I want to come back next year!”
Youngsters in the Seattle-Tacoma region, Washington, D.C., and Albuquerque, N.M., will use the camp curriculum via a Web portal – kidsahead.com – developed by the Caruth Institute.
The institute plans to build on the camp’s math- and science-infused subject matter with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) content, which also will be shared through the portal.

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