Introduction

In this last lesson, you learned that many factors affect the rate of insect development.

Which of these would likely slow the rate of insect development on a body?

  1. warm weather
  2. humidity
  3. cold weather
  4. direct sunlight

In this lesson, we will look more closely at several environmental factors that affect the rate of insect development.

Lesson Objectives

Following successful completion of this lesson, students will be able to...

  • Utilize weather and insect data to predict the time-of-death.

Essential Questions

  • Why is time of death important?
  • How can the environment influence the time of death estimate?

Enduring Understandings

  • Crime scene evidence can be compared to previously established models or recreations to enhance to one's understanding of the crime scene (i.e., trajectories, decay processes, bone length/height).
  • Forensic results are open to the interpretation and subject to the limitation of the pathologist's knowledge and methods.
  • The principles of scientific inquiry are required in all crime scene and forensic science analysis.

The above objectives correspond with the Alabama Course of Study: Forensic Science and Crime Scene Investigation standards: 33.