Teaching "A Civil Action"
Overview for Course Modules or a Mock-Trial Course
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HideThis part of the website is designed to help faculty and educators explore the workings of science and the law in this case as they pertain to the specific connections between pollution in the environment and sickness in those living near the pollution.
There are three ways to look at the materials associated with this case. In the left navigation menu there are links to Overarching Questions regarding the interaction of science and the law, the Key Issues presents materials deals specific legal, societal, and scientific issues raised in this landmark case, and the collection of 13 Learning Modules helps to create a complete course with the goal of conducting a mock trial of this case with your students.
Integrative Teaching Using "A Civil Action"
This area presents ways of using the activities and resources in this website for teaching interdisciplinary courses that don't involve a mock trial. Contained herein are descriptions of strategies for teaching modules separately or as a collection focused on specific topics such as medical issues and cancer, expert witness techniques and trial procedures, or remediation approaches to Superfund sites. Each module contains the strategy and pedagogy used for the development of the module.
The goal of this resource is to allow educators to develop a class that guides students through a full mock trial process developing scientific skills as they develop their role-playing characters and trial strategies as well as to allow educators to take pieces of the assembled resource collections and look at specific issues related to hazardous waste, corporate responsibility, citizen awareness, and the legal system as part another class.
This series of webpages contains educational activities and assignments that will enable you to move your class through the material with the aim of conducting the mock trial at the end of the term. There are teaching notes and pedagogical aids you will find useful in conducting the activities. There are also student versions of these webpages that provide the learning materials without the pedagogical information.
