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Building Faces 'From The Skull Up'

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By LINNEA BROWN

Published: December 20, 2007

SPRING HILL - SPRING HILL - A group of young teenagers huddle around their masterpieces, deep in concentration. Their carefully-built "projects" of human heads stare back at them, all eyes and mouths and noses — and all different.

But this "art" has nothing to do with creativity or sculpting ability.

This is forensics class.

Gary Kimble's eighth-grade students at Challenger K-8 School of Science and Mathematics in Spring Hill have spent the past two months completing facial reconstructions, or "rebuilding" a face based on the measurements recorded in its skull.

Working off plastic casts of skulls, the students use precise measurements, wooden dowels and non-hardening modeling clay to build, mold and smooth the face — everything from cheekbones and ears to lips and nose.

"It takes a lot of steps, but it's cool to see the progression," said Michelle Doucet, 13.

"I've got a chunky guy," announced Brittany Martinex, 13, explaining that the depth of someone's skin gives clues to the person's weight, visible by marks on their skull.

The students mold the eyes out of a hardening clay, and must "set" them in the sockets based on calculations of whether they are inset, protruding or in the normal range.

"There are all kinds of varying proportions, based on a person's (ancestry) and build," Kimble said.

Alexis Beetz, 13, held her fingers to her jaw line in an L-shape.

"If your fingers follow the (jaw) line comfortably, it's a woman," she explained. "If your hand has to stretch, it's a man. The size of a person's ear is also determined by their nose."

Since each skull's bone structure is different, each person's project is unique. Some are fat, some are thin. Some are of African descent, while others have more northern European features — but no matter what, they're always done methodically, according to precise scientific calculations.

"My students will say, 'They're horrible-looking,' and I remind them that it's not just the pretty people who die," Kimble said. "They worry that the person isn't going to look like a movie star, and I tell them they probably won't. We reconstruct the faces of people who weight 90 lbs. and others who weigh 390 lbs."

For ethical reasons, Kimble said he "tweaks" the measurements slightly to make sure students aren't reconstructing the exact features of the people whose skulls were donated for science.

"We want to make sure we don't actually reconstruct the head that was there," he said.

Making tissue depth markers, the students add clay and build the face from the "skull" up, literally.

"It's more a matter of science than art, but it's amazing what you can do with it," Kimble said. "It's just a matter of telling someone it can be done."

Kimble teaches forensics to students throughout middle school, starting with a full excavation of a makeshift "buried crime scene" in 6th grade and culminating with the reconstruction projects in 8th grade.

And forensic reconstruction is on the higher end for a reason, he said.

"There are only a few people in the country and world that can do it," he said. "People want to use computer programs instead, which is clean, but not necessarily correct."

With approximately 400 forensic cases a year nationwide that are never even looked at, many cases go unsolved because there aren't enough eyes to look at them, Kimble said.

"I tell the kids that they can get a job relatively quick, if they go into this," he said. "These are eighth graders who have never studied sculpture and never worked with clay, and yet they really are doing phenomenal work."

Kimble, 46, spent 21 years working in the forensic science division at the sheriff's office before coming to Challenger in 2004.

Since the school is dedicated to science and math, officials were looking for something to attract attention and get kids excited about science, he said.

"'Forensic' is to get their attention, and then we slip the 'science' in when they're not paying attention," he joked.

And it appears to be working.

Michelle Doucet, 13, said she hopes to become a crime scene investigator one day, while the rest of the class avidly approved the activity.

"This is the coolest project," said Julia Plholek, 13.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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