For first-year students, Explore the Core lectures are a fast and easy way to be introduced to the courses that will allow them to complete the requirements instituted by Elizabethtown College. Professors of many different disciplines facilitate the lectures, which are held every Wednesday at 11 a.m. in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. All students are welcome to attend, though the events are largely attended by first-years who are still unsure of which courses to take to fulfill their requirements. Lecturers speak on a variety of courses, specifically ones that they themselves are teaching, and they may also speak on courses that are offered by other staff members in their department which fulfill core requirements.
On Wednesday, Sept. 19, the Explore the Core lecture was centered on the Natural and Physical Sciences requirement of the core program, specifically featuring courses in anthropology and chemistry. Dr. Elizabeth Newell, associate professor of anthropology, made her Principles of Biological Anthropology class, AN 201, the subject of her lecture. Professor Richard Papez, assistant in chemistry, spoke about his CH 109 course, Introduction to Forensic Science.
Newell prefaced her lecture by saying, “The social sciences are unique because we consider the importance of studying mankind. We’re interested in humanity at all times, in all places.” Nothing sums up her Biological Anthropology class quite like this introductory statement; she made it very clear during her discussion of anthropological study that this discipline has a high regard for human life, for human history, and for human evolution throughout all time periods and locations across the globe. She stressed the importance of studying the relationships between all facets of humanity: how families distribute themselves culturally, socially and economically. Principles of Biological Anthropology, AN 201, explores this very concept: the behavior of living human groups all over the world, including the learned ways in which these groups of people adapt to their environment.
According to Newell, there are four areas of anthropological study. The first of these is cultural anthropology, the study of human cultures and how they develop over time, are maintained by a group, and are passed on. The second area is anthropological linguistics, the study of how a group of people speaks and writes and how they develop language and writing systems. The third area, archaeology, is the study of material remains and artifacts that are deposited by the people who lived before us; from these remnants, we can determine the culture of the group. The fourth area is biological anthropology, the study of the organisms currently living and developing in the world: us. Newell’s biological anthropology course focuses closely on this area of study. One of the class’s primary goals, which happens to be a primary goal of anthropological study itself, is to discover, as Newell puts it, “what it means to be human.”
When it comes to studies in anthropology, a common question might be, “How did we get here?” This is the question that Newell asks in her studies as well. During the Explore the Core lecture, she mused aloud, “How did we go from single-cell organisms living in water to multi-cell organisms living on land?” Anthropology, she notes, does not attempt to explain why these things happened, but how they happened. “Why?” is a philosophical question. “How?” is an anthropological question. She explored the age-old debate on nature-versus-nurture, the inevitable argument that she immediately put to rest for the prospective first-years. “We’ve decided it’s a bad question,” she said. “The two are inextricably linked. They work hand-in-hand. We change the environment, it changes us.” She explained that in order to determine how we got to where we are now, it is essential that we examine our evolutionary predecessors, the primates. “The more we learn about primates,” Newell said, “the more difficult it becomes to differentiate ourselves from them.” Her course on biological anthropology will feature an entire unit on primates to explore this fascinating subject.
Papez, spoke next; his focus was on CH 109, Introduction to Forensic Science, a non-laboratory NPS core class. He began by saying, “It’s amazing what little we knew back then about forensic analysis. The evidence was available, but we didn’t know how to analyze it.” Papez is quite right, when examining the facts: DNA testing is less than a half-century old. Much has changed in the field of forensic science over the years, including more accurate ways to test samples from crime scenes, better analysis methods, and a better understanding of the many different parts of a crime scene that make up the puzzling whole. Each crime scene is a dangerous enigma that crime scene investigators and forensic scientists alike must navigate. Their analyses determine whether a criminal is brought to justice … or not.
This is the focus of Papez’s Introduction to Forensic Science, from sample analysis to criminal psychology to chemical analysis. It’s not your average chemistry course! The curriculum includes in-depth case studies in which students are challenged to analyze details and come to a conclusion. Students learn how to recognize the existence of a crime in Papez’s personally-engineered game, “Crime Or No Crime.” The class also learns how to gather and preserve evidence using proper procedure, the mechanics of securing a scene, and how to properly analyze samples such as hair, blood and soil. They utilize processes like chromatography, toxicology, DNA analysis, polymer identification, microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. In addition, they study the mechanics of poisons, drugs, arson, ballistics, explosions and firearms.
Papez asserted that the coursework for this class implements real-world procedures, not the glamorized, Hollywood-esque procedures that we see in television shows like the popular “CSI: Wherever” or “Law & Order.” While these shows can be endlessly entertaining for the casual viewer, they shouldn’t be mistaken for real-life situations and procedures. Papez aims to educate his students on the true amount of time and effort that goes into forensic analysis and dispel the established myth that DNA analysis and criminal conviction can happen within a one-hour time frame.
Descriptions for both of these exciting Natural and Physical Science courses can be found on the College Registration and Records website. Both can be used to fulfill the NPS Core requirements, and because of their well-rounded and engaging curriculum, both are bound to appeal to students of all disciplines.