BUCKHANNON – Traditionally in high school, students learn about court cases by reading books such as ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ or ‘The Crucible.’ But Buckhannon-Upshur High School now offers a business law class that gives students the opportunity to visit a courtroom, hear from guest speakers, conduct mock trials and learn about history-making verdicts.
The business law class is taught by Christy Dean, a Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructor. Recently, the class hosted a mock trial with a fairytale twist: The Queen vs. Snow White. During the trial, Dean said students were able to apply what they learned in an engaging event that emphasized teamwork.
Project Based Learning affords educators a way to cover a variety of learning standards.
“One key element of PBL is that guests have the chance to be part of the learning experience,” Dean said. “In this event, many of our school resources were used to enhance learning.”
Other B-UHS teachers assisting with the mock trial included Alisa Compton, Mindy Dawson, Randy Revels, Laura Meese, Jeremiah Smallridge, Danielle Rexroad and Angie Westfall.
“These teachers played a role in making a piece of literature come to life,” Dean said. “These events provide students with real-life situations and they learned the value in teamwork.”
The case focused on Snow White, who was accused of stealing the Queen’s trademark — and was found guilty.
