Community

NFSTC has become an integral part of the Tampa Bay area and reaches out through a variety of events to engage the community in our mission and provide fact-based forensic science education to students and the general public.

NFSTC's Hillary Markert demonstrating a Raman device during the 2011 Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day event.

Past Community Outreach Events

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day—NFSTC participates in Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Our young visitors participate in interactive activities to educate them on the basic principles of forensic science and crime scene investigation.

Read about this year’s event here: http://www.nfstc.org/students-visiting-nfstc-lead-the-investigation/

Great American Teach-In—Representatives from our laboratory services and instructional design departments visited area schools and made presentations to students to provide information on forensic science and instructional design careers. NFSTC participates yearly in the Great American Teach-In.

Forensic Technologies in the Military Forum—In 2011, NFSTC CEO Kevin Lothridge addressed students at Brandon High School as part of their Forensic Technologies in the Military Forum. The event provided science students and JROTC members the opportunity to hear from forensic experts and ask questions about careers, science and technology.

Biometrics and Forensic Internship for ROTC Cadets—Since 2009, NFSTC has provided two weeks of basic forensic science training to a cadre of ROTC cadets at no charge to the participants or their units. Students participated in classes, labs and practical exercises to gain first-hand knowledge and experience about the capabilities and assets currently being employed by United States military around the world. The next event is scheduled for July 2012.

Participants learn about forensic investigation in one of NFSTC's mobile forensic laboratories during the CSI Night event.

Sci Café, St. Petersburg—NFSTC hosted this quarterly event in July 2010. Visitors rotated through several activities to learn about crime scene investigation, and a panel of NFSTC experts fielded questions. This event demonstrated NFSTC’s support for the justice community through research, programs, technology evaluations and laboratory quality reviews.

CSI Night—Business, community and law enforcement leaders had the opportunity to get first-hand experience in working a “crime scene” at our CSI Night event. This event centered on debunking commonly held myths about forensic science, and demonstrating how real forensic professionals work.

STEM Student Tours—In 2010 and 2011, NFSTC hosted Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students from local high schools for hands-on tours of our forensic science training facility. Students toured the NFSTC facility and participated in hands-on activities involving testing unknown substances and biological fluids, interpreting DNA profiles and using firearms comparison microscopes.

STEM TEC students participated in hands-on demonstrations of fingerprint collection and detection during a tour of NFSTC.

PSM Initiative—Kevin Lothridge, NFSTC CEO, serves on the board of the Professional Science Master’s (PSM) Initiative of the State of Florida. The PSM degree is equivalent to the MBA; it is designed to provide science graduates with the management skills to successfully manage public crime laboratory operations of any size.

coolTech—An annual Tampa Bay Technology Forum event, coolTech is a gathering of technology industry leaders and innovators from around the Tampa Bay region. NFSTC participated in 2010 with field forensic tools and NamUs, and in 2011 with a new virtual crime scene training tool.

For more information, visit the event website at: http://www.tbtf.org/?page=coolTECH

NFSTC in the Media

To explore NFSTC’s media coverage, visit our newsroom at http://www.nfstc.org/newsroom/nfstc-and-programs-in-the-news