This summer our department offered one of three classes as part of the campus's STEP program (Summer Teen Enrichment Program). STEP offers students who are entering one of the four years of high school exposure to an area of college study with a focus on hands-on experience. Adjunct Professor Pat Boettcher took a group of these students through a one-week adventure in forensics science in five three-hour lab based sessions. Boettcher is pictured here holding a piece of thin-layer chromatography paper in a developing jar used to separate the different components in certain over-the-counter medicines according to their solubility in a solvent. Classroom data - in the form of unitless retardation factor - appears behind him on the blackboard.
