Behrend hosted a series of College for Kids courses over summer, marking the 24th year of the program.

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Approximately 1,381 children between the ages six and 14 attended the summer program, marking it as the largest attendance in its history.

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One class called “CSI-Crime Scene Investigations” focused on the student’s abilities to solve a crime scene.

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“There was blood splattered around her and in some spots of the room,” said Morgan Farrell according to Penn State News, who will soon enter the ninth grade at Seneca High School. “It was a pretty big eye-opener.”

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The students learned the various steps of evidence collection, what each piece of evidence means and what can be done with it.

“What I wanted to do was teach them all of the different parts of CSI. So they collected background information, went through the steps of dusting for prints and did all the steps of investigating a crime scene,” said course instructor Jerry Fenner who is also a teacher in the Iroquois School District. “At the end of the week, they have to answer four questions: Who did it? What happened? What’s the evidence that they have? And do they have enough evidence to convict?”

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The students investigated a fictional crime scene concerning a victim named Suzie. They found an ID, rubber band, soda can, and CD.

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Conor Russell, an eighth grader at Saint George School, found a piece of evidence that stood out.

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“In the testimony, the one suspect, Sam, had no alibi,” Russell said. “He also had a history of being attracted to her and was known as a loner.”

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By the end of the class, there was no one apparent suspect that committed the crime. This shows that crime scenes often leave many open questions, making the answers uncertain.

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“They’ve done a really good job of figuring these things out and learning everything that goes into a criminal investigation,” Fenner said. “They really enjoyed trying to solve the crime, and they now know how much goes into this type of thing.”