Clarksville Police Department Assisted West Creek High School in The Freshman Challenge

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Clarksville, TN – During this week (October 19th, 2015-October 23rd, 2015), Officers from the Clarksville Police Department’s Traffic Unit have been assisting West Creek High School Academy of Criminal Justice and Homeland Security in an event called The Freshman Challenge.

The Freshman Challenge at WCHS: The WCHS students started the week by working a (simulated) vehicle incident.

Clarksville Police help West Creek High School Academy of Criminal Justice and Homeland Security learn criminal justice in real world situations.

They had an opportunity to utilizing skills and knowledge they have learned in their coursework up to this point in the school year; it was an evaluation of their learning and application of their knowledge to real world contexts.

On October 20th, the students went out to the scene two times:

In Principles of Law, they approached the incident as first responders, gathering information from witnesses, taking statements and more. The students used the information to write an initial report, demonstrating their writing skills for English class.

In Physical Science, they approached the incident as Crime Scene Investigators. Officer John Reyes and Officer Larry Harris, both from the CPD Traffic Unit, helped to facilitate the crash scene and answer questions students had about report writing, sketches, and data collection. The students took their data to draw conclusions about speeds and accelerations involved in the incident. They carried some of this over to Math, where they analyzed graphs with this data to draw conclusions about the forces and distances involved. They used this to develop another report presenting their findings that will go into a case file they are developing for Principles of Law.

Classes and Teachers:

Chelsie Barret’s English classes conducted narrative writing at the scene.
Thomas Farley’s Physical Science classes collected data/measurements.
Gerald Steffen’s Principle of Law classes gathered measurements/data for sketch diagrams.

WCHS Gerald Steffen—“It was a great experience. Teachers had the opportunity to work together and plan with Clarksville Police Officers as well as integrate core subjects such as English, Math, and Science with real world experience related to Criminal Justice. The students had a great week and can’t wait to start their 2nd challenge, which is the mock trial phase.”

CPD Officer John Reyes—“Clarksville Police Officers can act as liaison between schools, teachers and their students. We look forward to each and every opportunity to be proactive and leave a positive effect on each of those we have the pleasure of teaching. We believe this program will be a huge success and allow this department to build a strong bond with our school system.”

CPD Sgt Melissa Spielhagen helped coordinate the challenge between the West Creek High School CJS teachers, English teachers, and the Physical Science teachers. Before the school year started, she taught an externship class for WCHS teachers, connecting classroom concepts to real world crash reconstruction.

Sgt Spielhagen—“I think it is very important for students to see how the concepts they are learning in the classroom can translate to the real world. When I was in high school, I didn’t realize that I would use Algebra and Trigonometry outside of school, and I didn’t know how many classroom subjects I would use on a daily basis for my job. English, Math, and Sciences are extremely important and this challenge helped to demonstrate that for the students.”

This is a great example of how Clarksville’s School System and the Clarksville Police Department are working together to help prepare Clarksville’s young people for their future. We hope to continue these types of events in the years to come. Special thanks to the West Creek High School teachers and staff and the CPD Officers who made this event a success!