Gory Mock Crime Scene For Deakin Forensic Science Course CSI Waurn Ponds: forensics' new generation From gruesome murders to drug laboratories, students will get the chance to forensically process lifelike crime scenes in a new facility at Deakin University in Geelong. A bloody handprint drips down the wall; live maggots have gathered on a body. This gory mock crime scene is Deakin University's newest classroom. Here students will prepare for a career in forensic science. They will comb through simulated murder scenes and clandestine drug laboratories, collecting samples for analysis. We're not concerned that we will shock students. I think that we'd like to perhaps shock them. Later, the students will submit their evidence to a mock court, where it will be scrutinised and their laboratory analysis judged. PhD student Luke Andrighetto examines a crime scene as part of the forensic studies program at Deakin University. Forensic science course leader Michelle Harvey has drawn on her experience working in the field to set up the training centre at Waurn Ponds. It opened on Wednesday. Dr Harvey said the students would develop an eye for the subtle details that can help solve a crime. How many coffee mugs were sitting there? When is the newspaper from? This might inform, for example, how long the body has been there," she said. The students will learn that plastic bottles can contain a "nice layer of saliva" bursting with evidence of who was at the scene. They will don protective suits and lay plastic plates on the floor to prevent contamination and the trampling of evidence. They will get suited up in the proper equipment just like CSI but a bit more realistic. The university has worked with forensic specialists to ensure the rooms accurately simulate real crime scenes. Deakin forensic science senior lecturer Xavier Conlan said the training centre mimicked a normal house. Cereal boxes and tea towels lie about the kitchen and magazines are strewn in the lounge. Teachers will simulate a range of crimes, complete with evidence that analysts would gather, including bullets and live maggots that are drawn to open wounds and orifices in a corpse. It is gruesome. I think that's what attracts some of our students to the course," Dr Conlan said. That's part of being a forensic scientist. But presenting the evidence in a simulated court was the most daunting part of the process for many students, Dr Conlan said. That's really important for forensic scientists because ... their work has got to stand up in court. That's a real challenge for them.