Maryville Pawprint Maryville Pawprint, Maryville University's Student Newspaper
If you have been walking through the halls of the Anheuser-Busch Academic Center lately, you may have seen the new Peep display in the glass case across from the Arts & Sciences office. These colorful, fun marshmallow “Peeps”, an Easter treat, have been created into a multi-image diorama to promote the Forensic Science, Criminology, and Legal Studies programs at Maryville.
“The current presentation started out as a promotional display for a class this summer CRIM 297.01 From Murder to Trial and then the Peeps took over,” said Sandy Reeder, College of Arts & Sciences Assistant.
Easter Peeps have taken over the Arts & Sciences display case as a promotional display for the Forensic Science, Criminal Justice, and Legal Studies programs at Maryville. Image courtesy of Alexandra Gresick.
The display was created under the influence of Dr. Tom Spudich, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Forensic Science; Geriann Brandt, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology; and Mary Carol Parker, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies.
“Our overall goal is to promote the Forensic Science, Criminal Justice/Criminology, and Para-legal majors on campus using the Peeps,” said Dr. Spudich.
The three professors decided to incorporate the Easter theme marshmallow Peeps to create displays promoting criminal justice, forensic science and the law system. The Peeps have become actors from various scenes in history as well as parts of the law-making process and various issues that arise from laws. The Peeps will be analyzed forensically to determine which Peep is found guilty of the crime.
“As we were talking about the display, we couldn’t discount (at the time) the pending Easter holiday. So we incorporated “Peeps” as actors, and I believe that Dr. Spudich will be using forensic instrumentation to ‘analyze’ the peep structure,” added Brandt.
Dr. Spudich wished to use electricity but has instead planned to use visible spectrophotometry to analyze the dyes in the sugar to identify the guilty Peep.
“I was trying to update the case with electricity, but that cannot happen, so I am working on my plan ‘B.’,” said Dr. Spudich. “We are using visible spectrophotometry to determine which Peep committed the crime by using the dyes in the sugar as the identifier. It will be much easier to see once the data is displayed (on the top shelf). I will/should have the data identifying the “Peepetrator” posted by Tuesday,” he adds.
Image courtesy of Alexandra Gresick.
Scenes in the Peep displays include #1 Supreme Court Peeps, #2 Jailhouse Peeps, #3 Tactical Ops Peeps, #4 K-9 Peep, #5 Peep-Gang, #6 Same Sex Peeps, #7 Cops and Peepers, #8 Peep Patrol and Peep-a-trator, and the Montgomery City Bus Rosa Parks Memorial Peeps.
