When the kidnapping of the Pirate mascot was reported at ECU last week, a team of investigators began performing a series of sophisticated tests — including ink chromatography, handwriting analysis and DNA fingerprinting.

It looked like an episode of television's "CSI," only the cast was a little younger.

A group of middle-school students attending one of East Carolina University's Morehead Planetarium Science Center camps last week got its own version of CSI — Camp Scene Investigation. Across town at The Oakwood School, more students were "Cracking the Case" at a similar camp. The popularity of such camps, unheard of in the area even a year ago, stands as evidence that the fascination with forensics isn't just for grown-ups anymore.

"The kids want to (study forensics) because they see the show and they see all the cool stuff," said Sue Purser, a science teacher at D.H. Conley High School and one of the instructors at Oakwood's camp. "I think that's the appeal for the kids: that they can be like those people on TV and do those things and solve those puzzles.

Katie Avery, 12, who attended Oakwood's camp, is a big CSI fan.

"I figured it would be a little like (the show), and it kind of is," she said Thursday as she conducted tests to help identify "bloodspatter" patterns. Students used a mixture of corn starch and corn syrup and food coloring to simulate blood for the experiment.

The camps themselves are a mixture of disciplines, incorporating studies of biology and physics, while touching on psychology and even topics such as trigonometry and topography.

"All of these scientific principles, it's such a springboard," said Samantha Barlow, a science teacher at Oakwood who helped lead the camp there. "It's awesome because there's so much science embedded in it."

Purser, who has taught a forensics class at Conley for two years, said the "crime scene" technique is a great way to teach complex concepts that might seem dull in a textbook.

"You can teach a whole heap of science within the context of solving a mystery," Purser said. "You've got the children engaged in the mystery of it, and it's an easy hook for them."

The excitement of an investigation was what led 10-year-old Arun Ajmera to ECU's CSI camp.

"(I came) so I could learn how to investigate things, how to be a detective, how to catch the criminal," he said.

Fellow camper Michelle Devente, 12, probably wants to be a doctor like her parents. But she loves a good mystery so she and her friend, Mia Dietrich, signed up for camp together.

"We've read, like, the 'Nancy Drew' books, too," she said.

Some might question whether discussing topics like murder and "bloodsplatter" patterns is too graphic for kids who are at a more suitable age for "Nancy Drew" and "Hardy Boys." CBS' "CSI" television shows carry a rating that indicates their content may be unsuitable for children younger than 14.

Del Lambert, an ECU educational biology major who helped lead the camp there, said some "CSI" programming is not appropriate for children. For camp, ECU staff members stayed away from grisly crimes, opting, instead to have the Pirate mascot kidnapped.

"We believe it's an inside job, and the kids have until Friday to figure out who it is or we're going to have to turn it over to police," Lambert said in an interview Wednesday. "The way it's presented, it's completely age-appropriate."

While Oakwood's "crime" involved a death, the school still avoided staging a gruesome scene for students. Instead, instructors presented evidence — a bottle of poison containing fingerprints, a pen, a suicide note and some blood evidence — collected from a crime scene. Students were challenged to use the evidence to determine if they were dealing with a suicide or a homicide.

"That was basically all the information they had," Purser said. "You give them too much background information, and they get too hung up on the story and don't deal with the evidence.

"(Campers) are the forensic lab people, so they are analyzing the evidence."

Students at ECU's CSI camp spent the week studying clues from the crime scene and narrowing their list of suspects. The last day of camp was spent in interrogation, and with the help of campus police, students saw their suspect "arrested."

Oakwood chose a less open-and-shut format. At week's end, students were asked to write their conclusions about what really happened. Purser and Barlow intentionally avoided creating a crime scenario of their own, leaving it to the students to decide.

"In my classroom, I try to get away from that, there always having to be a definitive right answer that I have to tell them," Barlow said. "I want them to tell me. 'What do you think? What does your evidence prove?' ... They've got to figure it out on their own."

Contact features writer Kim Grizzard at 329-9578 or kgrizzard@coxnc.com.