Photo submitted to Times Observer Beaty-Warren Middle School Crime Scene Investigation Club champions (from left) Lexi Gulnac, Jenna Kophazy, Sara Richard, and Chalina Abreau celebrate with certificates presented to them by Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Jason Wagner and Trooper Jeffrey Osborne.

Reading, writing, arithmetic, and solving crimes.

When Beaty-Warren Middle School implemented twice-monthly club time, one of the offerings was Crime Scene Investigation.

Students in the club compete at solving crimes.d

“Students are split into teams and given a packet of information from photographic evidence and police reports to packs of matches and coded messages,” Advisor and Reading Specialist Wendy Carrington said.

They don’t have much time.

“Each week, the group has an hour to put together the evidence and find their suspect,” Carrington said. “The next week, they start fresh and link together evidence to find a new killer.”

“At the end of the nine-week marking period, students come together to see which team was the most successful group of CSIs,” she said.

At the end of the marking period, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Jeffrey Osborne and Cpl. Jason Wagner visited the club, and made a presentation to winning team members Lexi Gulnac, Jenna Kophazy, Sara Richard, Chalina Abreau, and Sierra Craig.

“Many of the students in the club were interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement and asked questions about how to enter law enforcement and what the job entails,” Carrington said.

Club time was started to provide the opportunity for students to spend some time in activities that aren’t on the middle-school curriculum.

In addition to CSI, offerings cover everything from sports and art to Legos and drones.