Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Today's schedule is A-B-Lunch-C-D

A - Social Studies 11 - With Mr. Jones you will be looking at the creation of the United Nations focusing on the structure of the organization. You'll look at the General Assembly and Security Council along with other UN organizations like UNESCO, ICJ, UNICEF, UNHCR, and others. You'll watch a Brainpop video on the UN and will discuss the purpose and intent of the organization both in the Cold War world and the modern world as well.

B - Geography 12 - Today we will look at atmospheric moisture, humidity, and the four atmospheric mechanisms that cool a parcel of air to its dew point & cause precipitation (orographic, convectional, frontal, and radiative cooling). You will complete questions 9 from page 211 and 21 & 23 from page 212 of your Geosystems textbook. While you are working on the questions I'll have the BBC DVD "The Weather" on for us to watch the wet episode.

C - Introduction to Law 9/10 - Today we are going to continue your look at crime scene investigation procedures and we will begin our work on our case study project. You will need to imagine that you are a constable in the Comox Valley R.C.M.P. detachment specializing in criminalistics and crime scene analysis. You are going to create a crime scene dossier file that you would normally put together for the Crown Counsel. You have been called out to a crime scene here in the Comox Valley and when you arrive at the scene you need to begin your narrative report. What do you need to do?
•Create a crime (ex: murder, arson, kidnapping, assault)
•Choose eight pieces of evidence (from the list below) that you would find at the crime scene and either help you solve the crime or mislead the investigators
•Create a victim, a perpetrator, two other potential subjects, & witnesses (not necessary)
•Create a dossier file that contains the following: a walk through narrative; pictures of the eight pieces of evidence (with a description, a tag number, and an explanation of where it was found); a detailed crime scene diagram/sketch with pictures of what the crime scene looked like and the identification of evidence; forensics lab sheets for each piece of evidence that describes the evidence and explains what the evidence tells you; transcripts of any interviews conducted by investigators (including potential eyewitnesses or suspects); a narrative of how you "solved" the crime so that the Crown Counsel can move forward with laying charges and proceed to trial.

Evidence to choose from: human hair, synthetic hair, carpet fibres, cotton fibres, bullet cartridges, bullet holes, finger prints, foot/shoe prints, blood stains (drip, splatter, pool), bodily fluids, skin epithelials, tube of lipstick, can of coke, apple core, piece of rope, body, accellerants, matches, money (wallet), poisons, bugs or larvae (blowflies), cigar or cigarette but, mug, tire treads, or any other trace evidence but you must approve the other evidence with me.

I will have examples for you to look at and we will also work on this next week in class.

D - Law 12 - Today we take a look at trial procedures focusing on the presentation of evidence. You will need to explain the following types of evidence:

1.direct evidence
2.circumstantial evidence
3.similar fact evidence
4.hearsay evidence
5.opinion evidence
6.character evidence

You will then need to answer the following questions:

1.what is an arraignment?
2.what is a "voire dire"?
3.what is a subpoena?
4.what is contempt of court
5.who presents first in a trial and why?
6.what is examination-in-chief, cross-examination, and rebuttal?
7.what is perjury?
8.why is the credibility of a witness important?
9.question 2 page 133 & questions 10 and 12 on page 134.

There is a great website on this topic, even though it is American and deals with the U.S. justice system, at the American Bar Association