STUDENTS TO LEARN ABOUT DNA TESTING, FORENSIC EVIDENCE

	Forty middle school students will collect evidence from mock
crime scenes at the University of Virginia on Saturday, Feb. 4, as
part of an effort to learn about DNA testing and analyses of
forensic evidence in criminal investigations. 

	Melissa Smrz, a forensic scientist specializing in DNA at
the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Washington, D.C.,
will lecture on collecting and analyzing evidence from 10:30 a.m. to
12 noon in Ruffner Hall Auditorium.  From approximately 1 to 3 p.m.,
students will collect planted evidence, including mock blood
samples, from crime scenes marked by yellow police tape at two
locations in Ruffner Hall. Wearing lab coats, they will use
microscopes to inspect the evidence in room 241, the
mathematics/science laboratory, in Ruffner Hall.

	The students are participants in Project S.C.A.M.P., a
program sponsored jointly by the National Science Foundation and
U.Va.Ős Curry School of Education, to encourage rural, gifted middle
school students to explore careers in science, mathematics and
computer science.  

	Each year S.C.A.M.P. students attend a three-week session at
U.Va. in which they work on computers, attend classes and go on
field trips to such sites as the National Air and Space Museum.
They return to U.Va. throughout the following academic year to
attend four Saturday sessions and a week in June.  The students in
this year's project represent schools in Virginia, Mississippi,
Oklahoma and Washington. 

	"We're trying to show kids that math and science can be
fun," said Margie Mason, a U.Va. assistant professor of education,
who has co-directed the program with her husband, Bruce, for about
eight years.  

	Although the Masons often take light-hearted or unusual
approaches to teaching the students, they have a serious intent.
"There's a critical shortage of math, science and engineering
majors, and we're losing many kids from those fields before they
even enter high school.  For some kids, their participation in
S.C.A.M.P. can make a difference for a lifetime," Mason said.

	For more information on the Saturday investigation, contact
Mason at (804) 924-0770, office, or (804) 977-3444, home.


January 27, 1995