Instructor Activities & Assignments
Overview
The 13 modules are designed to be used singularly or in groups within existing courses, or in
the complete sequence that culminates in a mock trial. Each module provides insight into the
"A Civil Action" trial and requires an activity that ends in a product that
can be used in the mock trial or as an individual, stand alone assignment. Some of the
activites are field trips to local facilities such as a hospital, a quarry or outcrop, a
courthouse, and require participation by a local oncologist, attorney, or judge. Several of the
assignments use EXCEL spreadsheets, trial testimony, and newspaper articles, which are all
contained within this website. Links to Overarching
Societal Questions and to Key Issues in the Trial are
contained within each module.
Learning Skills
A variety of learning skills are developed and/or reinforced in the modules. Some modules
require synthesis and writing skills. Others require data analysis and interpretation. Still
others require oral communication skills. The mock trial incorporates all of these skills. The
maps and graphs produced in the data analysis modules are used as exhibits in the mock trial
and the interpretation of these maps and graphs becomes the foundation of writing a expert
opinion prior to the mock trial. In turn, the expert opinion becomes the foundation for being
deposed by the other parties in the mock trial and for learning how to defend your opinions in
the mock trial itself. Role playing is used as a means to prepare for deposition and for direct
examination and cross examination in the mock trial.
Background on Health Issues
Assembling the Evidence
| Module Content | Motivating Activities[end
td]| Graded Assignments | |
| 3 | Construction of cross
sections; Module Overview | Trip
to local aggregate quarry, landfill, clay pit | 3-D view of aerial photos, Geologic cross sections |
| 4 | Contouring groundwater levels; Module Overview | Trip to local wellfield, measure water
levels | Potentiometric
surfaces and profiles, flow lines, and travel times |
| 5 |
Groundwater flow to municipal wells G and H; Module Overview | Trip to local wellfield, measure hydraulic conductivity with slug
test | Shapes of cones of depression, superposition |
| 6 |
Flooding of Aberjona River; Module
Overview | Local USGS gauging stations, measure Q | flood recurrence
intervals, land use challenges |
| 7 | Induced infiltration of
river water to wells G and H; Module
Overview | Local wellfield near river, measure Q | Gauging streamflow gain
and loss |
| 8 | Movement of TCE and PCE to wells G and H from
Beatrice and Grace; Module Overview |
Computer demo of contamination transport | TCE and PCE arrival times,
concentrations |
Prepare and Perform Mock Trial
| Module Content | Motivating Activities |
Graded Assignments |
| 9 | Presenting expert testimony as a written
opinion, during deposition and in trial; Module
Overview | Role playing: attorney and witness, direct and cross examination |
Read trial excerpts from experts' testimony |
| 10 | Deposition
of plaintiffs' and defendants' experts; Module
Overview | Student depositions | Read all depositions, coach attorneys as to
testimony |
| 11 | Trial procedures, design and preparation of
trial exhibits; Module Overview |
Visit county courthouse | Rehearse trial testimony, prepare exhibits |
| 12[end
td] | Enactment of mock trial, post-audit with jury and judge; Module Overview | Role-play in county
courthouse or classroom | |
Aftermath
| Module Content | Motivating Activities |
Graded Assignments |
| 13 | Remediation of Superfund Site, recent
health assessments, research; Module
Overview | Discuss role of science in the courtroom, society, outcome of the trial | Read research
papers, view animations |
