Colleyville Heritage High School

CHHS science teachers Amanda McCready and Andrea Fagerman teamed up with the Colleyville Fire Department for a forensics science lesson about fire safety.

In preparation, CHHS forensics science students built houses – some two-feet tall that looked like miniature penthouses and other small ones that looked like shoeboxes. One of those houses even included miniature home furnishings and kitchen appliances as well as a clay figure resembling a person sitting watching television.

During the fire department’s visit, those houses were burned to the ground as part of the planned educational lesson.

“It’s part of our forensics class,” said McCready. “It starts the year off with demonstrating the difference between real forensics and TV forensics. For example, test results probably don’t come back in 10 minutes.”

During the fire department’s April 4 visit, they brought a fire truck and their gear, and set up three stations in the parking lot next to the softball field.
“In one station, they talked with students about the fire academy, paramedics’ certification, why they went into the profession and fire safety,” McCready described.

At the next station, students toured the truck.

“The firefighters showed them all of the gadgets on the truck and how much water a fire truck can carry. Students also got a chance to have races to see who could put on gear the fastest.”

The third station was where students could see their houses burned down by one of the firefighters.

“The students' job was to pick where they wanted the fire to start in their house and to predict how they thought it would burn,” McCready stated.
She added that the class fulfills a science requirement and is officially a class that is part of GCISD’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, which any high school student can take.

“Some students take it for science credit, while others who are interested in law enforcement take it as an introduction,” she added.

Regardless of the reason, McCready is sure of one thing – it can be as interesting as you make it.

“Our goal is to make it fun, educational and engaging.”