OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Twenty four students from across the nation are set to graduate from the National Forensic Academy’s 10 week training course.

From learning bullets to blood stains, the graduates will return to their police departments having learned virtually every aspect of a crime scene.

Volunteer TV News went along with the academy for its final exam, which consisted of a gruesome mock crime scene.

Eric Kowalski from the Manitowoc City Police Department in Wisconsin quickly looked over the scene and noticed a bullet casing.

“It's a nine millimeter Winchester,” he said.

The scene was set up as a carjacking and robbery gone bad. There was a blood covered stolen vehicle, splatters, bullet holes and buried body. Students were then asked to apply what they had learned by processing the scene, writing a detailed narrative of what to do with each piece of evidence, then determining who the likely suspect is. The reports make up the final exam.

Kowalski went to work, studying the blood stains on the stolen vehicle and approaching the crime scene differently than he had just 10 weeks before.

"Prior to coming, my response to crime scenes was basically, ‘this is what I think we need to be doing, and this is what I want to collect,’" he said. “Based on the variety of evidence, you're able to tell a story or paint a picture of what occurred here."

Once he graduates, Kowalski will become the second investigator in the state of Wisconsin to go through the 400 hour academy.

“It's an accomplishment,” he said. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's the only one in the world that has every facet of training. It's the top CSI School in the world."

The training has also change the way Joe Wall from the Hobbs Police Department in New Mexico does his job.

"It will bring our department into the 21st century,” he said. “Not only will it mean the guilty are held accountable, but also that the innocent aren't."

Wall plans to head back home and take a second look at some of the Hobbs Police Department’s unsolved cases. He hopes to close the case on one unusual burglary in particular.

“The perpetrator left a trail of gloves and I think now going back I believe I can possibly solve that burglary," he said.

The lessons learned by the two dozen students will end up changing how agencies around the nation solve crimes.

The National Forensic Academy is run through the University of Tennessee Law Enforcement Innovation Center through the Institute for Public Service. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Ten week courses are normally offered three times each year in January, April/May and September.