East Tennessee teachers become Crime Busters

Class was in session at the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) and East Tennessee teachers were the students.

A retired University of Tennessee chemistry teacher, Dr. Al Hazari, taught 1st-5th grade teachers how to solve crimes on Monday, as a part of a series called Junior Crime Busters. This class helps teachers learn, and then teach some of the same techniques used by crime labs used to analyze the physical evidence collected at crime scenes.

Teachers learned everything from how to measure the amount of sugar in a piece of gum by chewing it-- to the science behind using a counterfeit money detecting pen at a store.

Doretha Thompsom, a special needs teacher from Bowers Elementary School, said it's important to stay up to date on current science in order to be the best teacher you can be.

"We have to learn because we have to be able to keep up with the world," said Thompsom. "Things are constantly changing so we have to teach the kids that as the world moves on, technology changes, it's important that teachers keep in tune or educate themselves in order to be educators."

Although retired, Hazari says he will continue to teach science to everyone he can around Tennessee for as long as he can.

"When you are excited about what you're doing, you want to share and excite other people.", said Hazari. "Hopefully these teachers that came here today will go back and get their students' molecules motivated."